The Palm Pre 2 is a multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

 smartphone

Smartphone

A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...

 designed and marketed by Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...

, and Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...

 with a multi-touch

Multi-touch

In computing, multi-touch refers to a touch sensing surface's ability to recognize the presence of two or more points of contact with the surface...

 screen and a sliding keyboard. The smartphone is the third to use Palm's Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 based mobile operating system

Mobile operating system

A mobile operating system, also known as a mobile OS, mobile software platform or a handheld operating system, is the operating system that controls a mobile device or information appliance—similar in principle to an operating system such as Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux distributions that controls a...

, webOS (releasing with version 2.0). The Pre 2 functions as a camera phone

Camera phone

A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture still photographs . Since early in the 21st century the majority of mobile phones in use are camera phones....

, a portable media player

Portable media player

A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...

, and has location and navigation capabilities. The Pre also serves as a personal information manager

Personal information manager

A personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study...

, has a number of communication and collaboration applications, and has Bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

 and Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...

 connectivity built-in.

The Palm Pre 2 was announced on October 19, 2010, with an initial launch date of October 22, 2010, on French carrier SFR

SFR

SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...

. It was also announced that the Pre 2 would be coming to United States carrier Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless

Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....

, Rogers Wireless

Rogers Wireless

Rogers Wireless is a wireless telecommunications provider offering mobile phone and data services throughout Canada using Global System for Mobile Communications and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System technology. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications...

 in Canada, and also as an unlocked UMTS developer phone.

History

On August 11, 2010, webOS developer Geoff Gauchet discovered that an unknown device with the code name "Roadrunner" was accessing his Foursquare app using a new version of webOS, version 2.0.

On October 12, 2010, the Pre 2 was leaked on France's SFR

SFR

SFR is a French mobile phone company. It has over 20 million customers, and provides over 4.6 million households with high-speed internet access...

website. Several specifications were revealed, including processor speed and memory. It was later officially launched on SFR on October 22nd.

On November 18, 2010, the Pre 2 became available in the U.S. as an unlocked developer device.

On December 20, 2010, the Pre 2 launched in Canada on Rogers Wireless.

On February 17, 2011, the Pre 2 launched in the U.S. on Verizon Wireless.