Palm Pre announced.

The Palm Pre was finally formally announced today. It looks like a great device: the power of the touchscreen iPhone with a slideout keyboard. It will also be interesting to see just how Nova builds on Linux and diverges from LiMo. If the device is nearly as good as it looks, it’s very likely that Rhomobile will support it close to its release timeframe at the end of the first half.

What’s clear is the mobile device operating system diversity is here to stay. I love the CNet quote

Palm’s a little late to the Smartphone 2.0 game, but it got off to a good start with the Palm Pre roll out. Obviously, it will take much more than a flashy demo to get Palm back on track. How the company handles application development will loom large in its success or failure.