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O2, the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre mobile phone in the UK, has announced that the iPhone rival will go on sale on October 16.

The Pre features a 3.1-inch touch-screen display, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a three-megapixel camera, push email support and high-speed internet access over the 3G network and Wi-Fi.

It went on sale in the US in June where it has been a critical success, and is widely viewed as the first mobile phone capable of competing with Apple’s iPhone. The Pre uses a cutting-edge operating system, webOS, to pull together contacts and profiles from a host of networks and social media sites, and makes them accessible through a single user interface.

Palm Pre

Signing an exclusivity deal with Palm for the Pre was something of a coup for O2, which is also the sole network partner for the iPhone in the UK. It means the network operator now has the exclusive rights to two of the most sought-after handsets on the market.

“Today’s announcement reinforces O2’s position as the home of the smartphone,” said Ronan Dunne, chief excutive of O2 in the UK. “With the addition of the excellent Palm Pre to our already extensive portfolio, we will continue to offer our customers the widest range of the very best devices on the market today.”

O2 has priced the Pre similarly to the iPhone 3G, the predecessor to Apple’s current handset, the 3GS.