AT&T Expects to Sell the Palm Pre
AT&T's Chief Executive Randall Stephenson made comments today on the Palm Pre at the D: All Things Digital conference hosted by The Wall Street Journal. In an article detailing his speech and the current status of the AT&T network, Mr. Stephenson is quoted as saying that he sees AT&T selling the Pre after the exclusive arrangement with Sprint expires.
While still not official, this comment would be the first positive indication that a domestic bound GSM version of the Palm Pre is due at some point. Since Sprint's exclusivity deal is expected to last through the end of the year, AT&T may be be able to offer the Pre until sometime in 2010. A video of Walt Mossberg's interview is also embedded after the break.
Thanks to PhoneScoop for the tip.
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RE: If this is true...it isn't
I think "context" needs to be wrapped around his single sentence comment, no?
RE: If this is true...
Mr. Stephenson added he sees AT&T selling the Pre after the exclusive arrangement with Sprint expires, and that the recession's biggest impact has been on the company's landline phone business.
Now, Mr. Stephenson might not have actually said that, but if he did, that seems pretty clear cut, doesn't it?
RE: If this is true...
BTW, this should give you 6 months to load the firmware with all sorts of bloatware in order to bring the Pre to a snails pace. Witness my once speedy 680, now an ATT improved lag-master.
RE: If this is true...
Are people naive enough to think Apple has no leverage with AT&T?
RE: If this is true...
It seems odd to me that Sprint would not have locked Palm into a longer exclusive period. If they are subsidizing the handset at a very high level, you'd think they'd have asked for more.
RE: If this is true...
Unless, Palm has a more compelling Pre 2 on the horizon that Sprint are eager to get their hands on. So while everyone else is scrambling to get the 8GB, no expansion card, no video recordin' Pre 1.0, Sprint will be trotting out a Pre 2 w/ 16GB and other improvements in time for Christmas....look how Palm has traditionally introduced their latest & greatest (755p, Centro) on Sprint then had it trickle down to other carriers later on.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->?
RE: If this is true...
RE: If this is true...
RE: If this is true...
RE: If this is true...
bcogis wrote:
I think it's a great tact for AT&T to say they too will carry the Pre. That way if the phone is a hit, AT&T customers will wait for the Pre instead of jumping ship. I wonder how happy they'll be when they find out AT&T won't be carrying the Pre?Are people naive enough to think Apple has no leverage with AT&T?
Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T expires next year, and what are the chances that Apple won't broaden the distribution of the iPhone (especially with the lackluster stories going around about the iPhone's performance on AT&T's network)? Once the Apple goes to other networks, what leverage will Apple have left? That's what makes the story plausible.
I have to say, though, that when I saw what Stephenson actually said about it, I'm somewhat surprised it's been interpretted the way it has been. Here's the quote that I found:
"Would I like to see that on our network some day? Of course I would," Stephenson said of the Pre. "We obviously talk to all the handset manufacturers. We want a broad selection of devices in the lineup. That's important."
That sounds a lot less like an imminent plan for a deal than it does a "Well, yeah, eventually..." kind of statement.
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If this is true...
Sucks having to wait until then, though. :(