Bono, the U2 lead singer, managing director and founding partner of investment firm Elevation Partners, which has invested heavily (more than $400 million) into resurgent handset maker Palm, Inc. Seems to be the latest pitchman for BlackBerry. His band’s latest album release, No Line on the Horizon, features prominently on blackberry’s home page. The company also is sponsoring the band’s current tour.

But this deal seems like a conflict of interest, since Palm Inc. is one of BlackBerry’s top rivals. And remember those red and black U2 edition iPods? Bono was pushing Apple devices before this blackberry gig. Ironically, Bono’s bet on Palm is the better one right now. Shares of Palm are up nearly 200% over the past 12 months. Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry devices, is down nearly 40%.

As peHUB Wire writer, Dan Primack, puts it: “[Bono] might as well take out a fullpage ad in USA Today, saying: ‘If you’re going to switch to a smart phone, don’t bother with the Palm Pre’.” Put another way it’s akin to the CEO of Coca-Cola making a commercial for Pepsi or Microsoft hawking for Apple, well, I could go on and on, but you get my point. Can you imagine that?

[Via Businessweek and Precentral]