Seems that in the end, Palm (PALM) decided it would be folly not to match the $199 price of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, though according to CEO Ed Colligan, the Pre is far superior to it. Asked at the Consumer Electronics Show if Palm would try to take market share by undercutting the iPhone on price, Colligan told MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka, “Why would we do that when we have a significantly better product?”

Perhaps, because you must? As J.P. Morgan analyst Paul Coster noted this morning, “The $199 price point was absolutely necessary, in our view, to go head to head with RIM and Apple.”

Interestingly, this means the Pre will indeed ship just days before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the event at which the company is expected to announce its next-generation iPhone. Which suggests that perhaps, as I theorized yesterday, Palm is hoping the Pre will benefit from the iPhone halo. “By debuting so close to the presumed announcement of the iPhone, Palm would be ensuring that its new device is fresh in the minds of anyone mulling the purchase of Apple’s latest offering–or writing about it,” I wrote. “It would be parasitically riding on the back on the Apple media juggernaut. Question is, can it hang on without getting trampled?”

Palm (PALM) hasn’t yet announced a price for its forthcoming Pre handset. Nor has the company provided an official release date. But today it did give those waiting with rapt anticipation for news of the device something to chew on: a new carrier. Bell Mobility has negotiated an exclusive on the Pre in Canada. The handset will arrive at market there sometime in the second half of 2009 and run on Bell Mobility’s 3G high-speed mobile network. “Bell is excited to be only the second carrier in the world to announce the 3G Pre,” said Adel Bazerghi, senior VP of products for Bell Mobility, in a statement. “With the unique user experience of the world’s first webOS phone, running on the country’s largest 3G network, we’re confident that Canadians will embrace Pre as the phone for their lives today.”

That’s wonderful. But when will they embrace it? And how much will it cost them to do it?

It has not yet been given a price or a release date, but Palm’s forthcoming Pre handset continues to have a remarkably restorative effect on the company’s share price. It wasn’t so long ago that Palm shares were trading just above a dollar. Today, they’re hovering around $8.67, bouyed up by little more than the device’s Consumer Electronics Show debut, an uneventful media Webcast, some hyperbolic remarks from one of the company’s investors and the enthusiasm of a few bullish analysts. Among them, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore and Jonathan Goldberg, who boosted their price target on Palm (PALM) to $12 from $10 today claiming that Palm will not only ship the device on schedule, but will follow it up with other form factors. “Since their earnings release last week, we have conducted a round of checks on Palm and remain confident in the potential for their new Pre smartphone to turnaround the company’s results,” the two wrote in a note. “The Pre timetable seems on track at least, and both carrier and developer interest remains high….We also confirmed earlier checks and vague hints on their recent call that the company is working on other form factors which we could see in the market sooner than expected.”

Quite a vote of confidence. Though to be fair, it’s not shared by everyone. Certainly, Needham analyst Charlie Wolf is looking askance at claims that the Pre will turn out to be Palm’s iPhone. “The stock appears fully valued even if the Pre turns into a stunning success,” he wrote in a recent research note. “To have management tell it, WebOS is the best thing since sliced bread and the Pre is a thing of beauty. Obviously, with the platform launch still weeks away, it’s impossible to challenge them.”