Just last week HP announced plans to introduce new smartphones in early 2011 running on Palm's webOS. Although the company didn't give further details on the actual devices, it seems French carrier SFR has spilled the beans on at least one of them. Published on its website yesterday were details for a so-called Pre 2 smartphone featuring a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, webOS 2.0 (which supposedly brings much faster boot times and push functionality), and a "more refined design."
We are not sure if the carrier was just running an old shot of the Palm Pre to advertise the new phone because it looks pretty much the same. In any case, SFR claims the Palm Pre 2 will have a "flatter" screen, a microUSB port and longer battery life. No mention of price or a release date was made, but some believe the updated phone and platform could actually arrive before year's end. HP is putting its weight behind webOS to gain wider acceptance in the mobile market and it's also on track to deliver a tablet computer running Palm's OS next year.