Some great announcements burbled out of Palm CEO’s talks with investors about the upcoming Pre:

• PalmOS is dead, which will certainly drive the lingering but eerily fervent PalmOS community to teeth-gnashing, but which is only practical in the era of smartphones. All future Palm phones will be driven by the Pre’s webOS (yes) or Windows Mobile (no).

• Pre App Store at launch. Better: no lock down, a la iPhone. You will be able to install third-party apps without jailbreaking, through USB or over the air.

• Palm has already established partnerships with carriers in Canada, Latin America and Europe. The Pre’s going international.

• Although there’s no details about Palm’s exclusivity deal with Sprint, Palm hopes to have the Pre on other carriers by 2010.

It’s great to watch Palm not only get the handset right, but get so many various philosophical aspects right, like open app development not limited to one corporate controlled distribution channel. Short of some appalling day one reviews, this is the phone that’s replacing my iPhone.

Palm CEO Ed Colligan talks Pre with investors [Precentral]