Report: Verizon to Sell Palm Pre in Six Months
Less than a week after Palm and Sprint Nextel announced an exclusive partnership to sell the eagerly awaited Pre smartphone, a second carrier, Verizon Wireless, claimed that it, too, will begin selling the device in the US.
Apparently, Verizon will begin selling the Pre as soon as Sprint’s exclusivity deal with Palm expires, an unnamed source supposedly familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal.
The source said Verizon plans to begin selling the Palm Pre, which has multi-touch capabilities, calendars synced in one place, cached contacts, a slide-out keyboard and the new webOS operating system, in January of 2010.
Both Palm and Verizon, however, are remaining tight-lipped about the release date, denying that a date was set for the Palm Pre to be sold by Verizon Wireless.
Just a Hint
In an apparent hint, Verizon Wireless CEO, Lowell McAdam said, “Over the next six months or so, you see devices like the Palm Pre [being sold by Verizon].”
Asked directly about Verizon’s upcoming pricing for the Pre, company spokesperson Brenda Raney declined to give specifics, only saying that “it is premature to discuss pricing of a phone that isn’t currently in our portfolio.”
“Sprint’s exclusivity on the Pre is for an extended period of time,” said Sprint spokesperson Mark Ellioot. “We have not been more specific, but it is longer than six months,” he added, casting doubt on the statement by Wall Street Journal’s source.
Breaking Records
It is not clear whether eager Verizon Wireless customers will be willing to wait for the January release of the Pre or if they plan to become Sprint customers to acquire the Pre sooner. However, it seems that by late Sunday the Palm Pre had broken previous sales records for both first day sales, as well as first weekend sales for any Sprint device. Although Sprint…
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