There was plenty of coverage of Palm unveiling the Pre today at CES 2009 in Las Vegas.  It certainly helped their stock — Palm’s stock price rose over 34% on the release of the Pre, closing at $4.45 today.

Looking at the phone, it’s easy to see why people like what they see:

• Large, vivid multi-touch touchscreen
• Email, web, contacts, etc.
• Slide-out keyboard
• Built-in WiFi
• Wireless charger (called a Touchstone)
• Integration of 3rd party apps (through a store maintained by Palm)

It’s too early to tell if this will be the ticket to Palm’s future, and keep them from hitting the technology dustbin, but the phone does look nice.  Only after the phone hits the market — sometime after the first half of 2009 — will consumers have a chance to shell out over $200 for the Palm Pre and decide if it’s a winner over the iPhone, BlackBerry Storm… Oh, and the HTC G1 Android-powered phone, too.

Additional coverage of the Palm Pre:

• Hands on video with the Pre [ArsTechnica]
• Hands on photos of the Pre [TechCrunch]
• Photos of the Pre at CES [CNET News]

Filed under: Hardware, Mobile Web