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Nerves continue to mount over when the Palm Pre will finally hit the market, with some sources whispering of component shortages that could push the handset dangerously close to its promised shipment date of "before mid-year". US exclusive partner Sprint Nextel has not yet opened up for pre-orders, which suggests recent talk of a mid-May shipment must be over-optimistic, and a carrier agreements in other parts of the world remain unsigned.

Strong European distribution will be important, especially as Palm will need one or more carriers prepared to spend serious marketing euros, to make up for its historic weakness in this region compared to its home territory. The handset maker's VP for EMEA, Paul Ghent, told Mobile Today that the company has "entered the final stages" of deciding its strategy and partners for Europe. "We're close to a decision on our strategy for EMEA and we're going through the final validation process at present," he said. "It's important we take our time over this and get everything exactly right. The key is identifying where the big opportunities lie for us."

Vodafone and Telefonica have been widely reported as the cellcos in the running for a multi-country deal, with at least six months' exclusivity, for the Pre. Vodafone would be a better bet, because it has more territories, and Telefonica has iPhone exclusives in the UK and Spain, and would be unlikely to push the Pre too aggressively in any markets where it might damage iPhone data revenues. Another major obstacle in Europe could be the lack of a W-CDMA/HSPA implementation - Sprint will have a CDMA version, of course, but there are no signs of an HSPA version in the near future, and launching a 2G smartphone in western Europe would be disastrous.

Despite the Pre's attention grabbing launch in January, since then its market for web optimized, multitouch smartphones has been getting more crowded, and it will have to compete for carrier marketing budgets and consumer attention with a growing range of heavy hitting rivals, from the LG Arena to new iPhones to Nokia's N97 and promised range of souped-up touchscreen handsets.

Meanwhile, some analysts are saying Palm has had to cut back shipment targets for May by about 65% because of supply problems with display and other components, which have limited manufacturing partner Foxconn's ability to deliver in volume.

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