Palm is to launch the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus in the UK by the end of the month (28 May) the phone maker has confirmed.

The news follows O2's confirmation in April that it would be stocking the two phones first announced in January.

Like the original Palm Pre, the new handsets will follow suit with an O2 launch, however unlike the previous launch they won't be exclusively on the carrier for long. In fact just a couple of months, according to Palm's VP of European sales Paul Ghent told Pocket-lint in a one-to-one briefing; with the company hoping to tie-up other operators before the end of the year for the devices.

Aggressively priced, the Palm Pre Plus will cost £35 a month on an 18-month contract, while the Palm Pixi Plus will cost £30 a month on an 18-month contract.

First announced at CES in Las Vegas at the beginning of the year for Verizon, the phones have since made it to AT&T in the US and now O2 in the UK.

The Pre Plus gets improved navigation, design tweaks and an inductive back cover for use with the optional Touchstone charger. It also gets a doubling of its internal memory - up to 16GB.

The Pixi Plus is thinner and lighter than the original Pixi, gets an internal storage boost to 8GB and is getting the addition of Wi-Fi functionality.

The Palm Pixi won't be coming to the UK, the company confirmed to Pocket-lint.

Palm, who has just been bought by HP, will have a tough fight on its hands with the new handsets, after so far failing to woo American consumers.

With an announcement expected from Apple within the next month over the launch of the fourth generation iPhone, and stiff competition from Android-powered handsets in the guise of the HTC Wildfire and HTC Desire, many analysts believe convincing UK customers to adopt the webOS platform will be tough.

PHOTOS: Palm Pixi Plus hands-on

PHOTOS: Palm Pre Plus hands-on