O2 really need to wise up to the fact that their craptastic network and customer service can't support these awesome phones, and spend some of that money on infrastructure instead.

(Speaking as an iPhone owner on Vodafone, and bitter ex-O2 customer who gave up fighting over being charged for the same usage several times over.)

Looks like I'll be getting my upgrade and selling it on Ebay to purchase a Pre now. Why can't the EU do something useful and put a stop to this exclusivity racket instead of removing web browsers from computers.

Hopefully this means Orange will get round to actually showing the N97 as an upgrade option... Unless of course they are still trying to cripple the VoIP stack.

Ban 18 & 24 month Contracts!

Im pretty happy on O2 sim-only. Looks like I might take the plunge and go back on contract. Not something I'd ever have considered if Orange were sole provider.

....and general blunder. A question Palm apparently forgot to ask....

"So Mr O2, as the iPhone is our primary competitor, how will you deal with the conflict of interest that will inevitably arise between us and the iPhone? When a customer asks which would you recommend - what will you say?"

.. if it weren't on O2.

I really wanted a Pre, but there's absolutely no chance I'm going back to O2.

@ Rob Haswell - much as I personally dislike the decision, it's certainly not a case for the EU to be interfering in.

Have to agree with Rob, what's with the increase in these Exclusivity deals?

All it does is restrict competition and keeps mobile tariff charges high. I'm so fed up of being shafted everytime you need to get a new phone - Exclusivity, poor coverage, bad customer service and 24 month contracts... what next?

Rant over.

I hate the service from O2 (both customer service and network service). I was hoping I might be able to dump my iPhone and move to a Pre on another network but that has been thwarted now.

I think I will need to go back to WinMo

Isn't there a monopolies issue here? A large number of people are effectively being denied access to arguably the two top smartphones on the market. I could jump ship to O2 but having just bought an O2 mobile broadband dongle (which I shall be returning imminently) it seems unlikely.

PS: If you are tempted to go for O2 mobile broadband my experience is poor coverage; ludicrous software that tries to take over your machine (e.g. [mis]manage all your wifi networking) and then GPFs if you do anything 'unusual' (like resume from suspend) - no distinction between weak network and authentication errors. Oh and I still haven't managed to connect even once whilst out and about.

but I can't be bothered now as I'm on Orange, and there''s no way I'm changing operator (been with Orange for 11 years) just to get a fancy phone.

I would happily have bought one on Orange, so I assume Palm have such a significant revenue deal with O2 that this lost sale doesn't affect their bottom line.

It does however affect their market penetration, and they are surely missing our on getting their products into people's hands and building for the future?

Thank God Orange didn't get it!

I quite O2 as they sold me a second hand phone with broken battery as new and they denied it was second hand. (if you took photos of a wedding and then sent the phone back, leaving them on the memory stick, I still have them.)

Quit O2 and was chaged for five months, then credited ten pounds to the account I cancelled as a "sorry."

Appalling company and now they have the other top iphone botherer.

Title says it all.

Will be an expensive phone and Tarrif and then they'll wonder why it's not selling...

Annoyed with exclusivity deals? Quit whining. Never used a shop, vending machine, public transport, bought a car from a showroom, took a flight, lah lah lah. Wake up and smell the coffee - these beans exclusive to Starbucks obviously...

Mines the one with the earplugs so I can't hear you.

Have you ever tried to buy a smartphone from the o2 website? Nearly all the decent phones seem to only be available on business plans. Even then it is virtually impossible to match the plethora of devices on show to any particular rate or even to find out more about them without getting into 'Flash jail' - and endless loop of marketing b*ll*cks. That's before you try to make sense of the plethora of tariffs.

Utter rubbish - so if they do sign up the pre don't expect to ever see it again...

... that's making me go back to PAYG as soon as my current contract expires (or until Vodafone/whoever take over T-Mobile, whichever comes first)

I'll keep my trusty Nokia 6300, thank you, but you can take your 18 and 24 month contracts and pound 'em up your wazoo. Like a lot of people, I'm not that keen on the iPhone but the Pre could have been a contender if it were with anyone but O2.

Hopefully Palm will manage to sell enough of first generation Pre to keep afloat. I want great battery life and OLED screen. And faster operation. And better network.

O2's network is shameful. The only reason they got the original iPhone deal was due to their EDGE support, now that's redundant where the hell is their 3G support? At home I can just about see an EDGE signal sometimes, at 1-2 bars signal strength. In my office I get GPRS, that's it... and I'm less than 5 miles from the centre of Belfast. It's appalling.

All these smartphones and nowhere to use 'em. Congratulations O2! Thank goodness their broadband makes up for it... even if it is BE's...

My company just moved to O2 for corporate phoned, so I got a Blackberry.

If only the move was a few month earlier/later - (depending on what moves) I could have had a Pre.

Oh well, only 2 years on the current contract might give Palm time to make it all better.

and will cripple the pre

Mwaaahaaaahaaaa

I also have an o2 dongle and it's a pile of turd. 3G coverage aside, the backend IP network is slow and badly interferes with crossing traffic.

I was once with O2 and their customer service was shoddy beyond belief and their customer service was a joke.

Despite this I tried to get an iPhone but was denied by their fussy system because it objected to the letter "C" in my flat number.

It was amusing to see the Apple Store connecting to O2's web based platform via Internet Explorer on VMWare! Not that O2 systems could stay up for more than 5 minutes at a time when I was trying to purchase.

O2 may have the smartphones but they are not the smart choice.

Palm are shooting themselves in the foot here; there are a lot of us who won't touch O2 but if we would, we'd buy an iPhone. I would consider Pre if it were on Orange.

I am absolutely fed up to the back teeth with "Exclusive" deals, and contract only schemes.

When I buy a car, regardless of brand, I am not tied to a single brand of petrol. My car is useless without petrol. When I buy a phone, I am tied to a network provider. In some cases, I'm even tied to the nature and duration of contract I sign.

Why can't I just buy a phone (any brand) and then be completely free to decide on my network provider, and the type of payment arrangement I have? Personally,I think the whole mobile phone market needs a shake-up, and I think subsidies and exclusivity deals should be abolished!

Paris, because she's not exclusive...

heads up, heard it here first, i predict iphone on t-mobile uk from monday 13th july.

Well thats what they are saying in our call centre