• San Jose Mercury News, Friday, January 9, 2009 11:45 AM

Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein introduced the company's much-anticipated new phone -- called the Pre and featuring new "webOS" software -- at a press event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday.

He didn't say how much the device would cost (it will be priced "competitively") or exactly when it would roll out (sometime "before July"), Troy Wolverton reports.

Among its features is a touch-screen like the iPhone's, including the ability to pinch to zoom in or out, or to flick to scroll. It's shorter than the iPhone, though, and includes a physical keyboard that slides out from underneath the touch screen. Also unlike the iPhone, the Pre will allow users to run multiple applications at the same time.

Analysts seem impressed by the effort, but warn that it will be tough for Palm to introduce yet another OS into the mobile device market. "The challenge will be to garner strong software vendor support," says Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies.

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