Sometimes persistence pays off. Email by email, the PalmPreBlog managed to wear down the patience of Vodafone Customer Service team just enough to get a hint of an answer:

With regrets, I can not currently share any information regarding the Palm Pre handset; we are still in early negotiation with Palm, but nothing is solid. I can double check next week but as of this point in time that is all I know.

Add in this bit from an admin on the Vodafone forums:

That phone does look awesome, we were taking a look at this in the office the other day a few of us have our eye on it, I would keep your eyes peeled on the coming soon section here at our online shop.

It’s great to see the Pre’s existence acknowledged by someone wearing a Vodafone badge, but it falls just short of confirmation. We love CS reps and all – they do a job no one else wants to – but most will readily admit that they’re not a questionable source of information. A huge chunk of the time, CS reps are kept out of the know, with their “inside info” coming from their favorite killing-time-at-work blog. When office gossip originates from the same blogs attempting to cover the office gossip, things get a bit shaky.

So, what can we gather from this? Vodafone and Palm are negotiating. Anything beyond that, we’ll have to wait for a source a bit more solid.