Finally there is a date for the GSM Palm Pre release, last time, we had an Autum release that now has an specific date. Surprisingly, O2 finally confirms today that the Palm Pre will be available in the UK on October 16th exclusively on the O2 network. Those who want to purchase the new device, can do so directly from O2, the Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U and other O2’s Business partners. It will also be available for purchase online from the O2 shop at www.o2.co.uk/shop.

First O2 will launch the GSM Palm Pre in Germany on October 13th, then, on October 16th the Pre smartphone will make its way to the United Kingdom and Ireland. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on the launch for the first webOS phone in Spain. The tariffs will vary by country – of course – but the great news for many Europeans is that some of them will be able to get the Pre for free, frei, gratis (or zero, null, nada).

Lets begin with the UK, where Business users will be able to pick up the Pre for free, on 24 or 36 month contracts at £30.91 ($51) or above. And there will be five different tariffs – as you can see on the first image below – four of which are 18 month contracts and a fifth lasting 24 months. Ranging from £29.38 ($48) to £73.41 ($120), all include unlimited UK HSDPA data and WiFi access in The Cloud and BT hotspots, together with varying amounts of included calls and messages.

O2 Ireland will have also five plans, all of them are for 18 months, ranging from €40 ($59) to €100 ($148) per month. The price of the Palm Pre in these plans will go from free (that comes to $0.00) to just €99 ($146). The plan for the free Palm Pre will include 700 minutes, 250 texts, 25 MMS, and 1 GB of data. All plans are limited to 1 GB of data per month, though they do also all come with unlimited access to O2’s WiFi hotspot network. You can check the price table on the last image below.

In Germany the Pre will be available on any contract with O2 Germany, though they recommend you sign up for at least the €10 ($15) per month data plan, if not, you’ll have to face by-the-kb data charges, which, with the Pre, you know it will happen to some people. German customers can also make a down payment of €1 ($2) for the Pre, and pay the remaining sum in 24 monthly rates of €20 ($30). All this with the new concept O2 My Handy at zero percent interest rate. Germans can also get the Pre contract-free, and yes, it will also be unlocked. There’s also some pricing for the German Pre on the second image below.

The Palm Pre will be Quad-Band on GSM and Tri-Band 3G, so it will support both; European and US 3G on AT&T.

* Palm Pre GSM Bands: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
* Palm Pre UMTS/HSDPA Bands: 850 / 1900 / 2100

Well, hackers and importers, start your engines. Although the German version will have the QWERTZ-style keyboard, I know many people – including me – that will not care to deal with the ‘Y’ in place of the ‘Z’ and vice versa. In that case, the only problem will be the carrier (AT&T).