Palm took the wraps off its overhauled mobile operating system introducing a touch-screen phone in hopes of winning back customers from rivals like Nokia and Apple.

Palm debuted the Palm Web OS, the new operating system created under the watch of former Apple executive Jon Rubenstein, who helped create the iPod.

Palm also introduced the Pre smartphone, a touch-screen device enabled with GPS, Wi-Fi, and a slide out full keyboard. It will be available in the first half of 2009.

Palm, maker of the Treo and Centro smartphones, had been steadily losing market share to rivals like Apple's iPhone and Research in Motion's BlackBerry, but shares of Palm jumped more than 15 percent to $3.80 on the news of the coming products.

Palm has been staking its future on the launch of the new operating system and device, which it has been developing since 2007.

It said the Pre would be exclusively offered by U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel Corp.