AT&T To Sell Palm Pre, Palm Pixi

After much speculation, AT&T has made it official: The company will soon sell the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus.

Palm hopes the added exposure will do for its company what previous deals with Verizon and Sprint failed to do — return it to prosperity. The company is reportedly in some dire straits, with some on Wall Street speculating that it will need to be acquired in order to survive.

The Palm Pre made its debut in an exclusive agreement with Sprint last summer. The Pre’s cousin, the Palm Pixi, made its Sprint appearance last fall before an updated version of both phones became available via Verizon Wireless in January. No word yet exactly when you’ll be able to get your hands on a Pre or a Pixi through AT&T.

AT&T said today it also will soon unveil an Android-based smartphone — the Dell Aero. This will be Dell’s first smartphone available in the U.S., and will feature a new, beautiful custom-user interface developed by Dell and AT&T.

“Our unparalleled choice in smartphones has put us at the top of the industry — and given us twice as many smartphone customers as any of our competitors,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “As the leaders in mobile broadband, we complement our smartphone lineup with the nation’s fastest 3G network and the largest Wi-Fi network in the U.S., with more than 20,000 public hotspots. We’re also the only carrier to offer valuable features like A-List with ROLLOVER, which add even greater value to our products and services. We’re looking forward to bringing these benefits to customers who choose one of the Palm smartphones or the exclusive Dell Aero.”

AT&T says the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will be the only Palm webOS devices in the U.S. to support simultaneous voice and data while running multiple applications at once. The Palm Synergy feature in webOS keeps your e-mail, contacts and calendars up to date with integration to Yahoo!, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Office Outlook, all in one view.

Palm Pre Plus will be available at $149.99 and the Palm Pixi Plus will cost $49.99, both after a two year contract and mail-in-rebate.

All of these new smartphones feature Wi-Fi connectivity and AT&T customers with these devices will receive AT&T Wi-Fi access at U.S. hotspots included as part of their unlimited data plan.