Confirmed: Bell releasing Palm Pre August 27th at $199.95

Shortly after putting the Future Shop image on, Bell released a press release that confirmed the official launch date of the Palm Pre for Thursday August 27th. Bell says the price point “will cost as little as $199.95 on a three-year contract or $599.95 without a contract with a minimum 500 MB data plan”.

Here is the full press release:

Bell today announced that the new Palm Pre phone will be exclusively available in Canada at Bell Mobility retail locations on August 27. Due to unprecedented demand, Bell also announced that Canadians can reserve one of the highly anticipated phones by pre-ordering now at bell.ca/pre, at Bell stores or at selected Bell retail partners.

Palm Pre is the first phone based on the new Palm webOS(TM) mobile platform, which brings mobile applications together in a unique and intuitive multi-tasking environment that is integrated with the most popular social networking tools and powerful search functions.

The Palm Pre will cost as little as $199.95 on a three-year contract or $599.95 without a contract with a minimum 500 MB data plan. Bell smartphone clients can choose from a wide variety of voice and data plans, including Smartphone Combos that offer unlimited Internet browsing, personal email, text messaging and Windows Live Messenger.

“We’re very excited to bring the revolutionary Palm Pre and the Palm webOS mobile platform to Canadians exclusively on Bell’s national wireless network – the largest high-speed 3G network in Canada,” said Wade Oosterman, President of Bell Mobility and Chief Brand Officer for Bell. “Considering the highly successful US introduction of the Palm Pre by Sprint in June and fast-growing Palm Pre buzz among Canadian mobile users, Bell and our retail partners are preparing for high demand for this breakthrough phone.”

Since announcing in May that it would carry the Palm Pre exclusively in Canada, Bell has seen unprecedented demand – tens of thousands of Canadians have already signed up at bell.ca/pre for more information about the device. Beginning today, clients can now pre-order the phone at bell.ca/pre, at Bell stores or at Bell retail partners Best Buy, Future Shop, The Telephone Booth/La Cabine Téléphonique, WIRELESS etc. and Wireless Wave.

“Palm is creating a new measure of simplicity and usefulness that is changing how people look at smartphones,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “It’s a new experience to access and connect the related but often decentralized information in your life, and we’re eager to share the Palm experience with Canada through Bell Mobility.”

The Palm webOS platform takes multi-tasking to a new level. Customers will love the ability to run multiple applications such as Internet, text messaging, email and music at the same time, and move easily between them using natural finger gestures. When they no longer need the item, they can close an activity by simply flicking it off the top of the screen.

The smooth, rounded ergonomic design makes Palm Pre a comfortable fit in your hand or pocket. The physical keyboard that slides out from beneath a large touch screen provides fast access to content on the device or web.

Palm webOS also features Palm Synergy(TM), which brings the users’ information from all the places it resides into one logical view so they don’t have to worry about tracking multiple calendars, contacts, email accounts and messaging applications. The Synergy feature pulls information from a client’s Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, including Facebook profile pictures, into the contacts application – a compelling feature for the 85% of online Canadians that have a Facebook account.

Palm’s unique universal search allows customers to find what they need easily – just slide open the keyboard, start typing to get instant results. Results are pulled from the device apps, contacts and popular Internet sites including Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and Twitter.