Verizon Endeavors to Sell the Pre in Six Months
Comments today from Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless's President and CEO, seem to the carrier is eager to offer the Palm Pre once the Sprint exclusivity contract expires. Reuters is reporting that Mr. McAdam made comments during a webcast today that:
"Verizon Wireless plans to start selling Palm Inc's Pre and a new version of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm in about six months"
This news marks the second major US carrier to pre-announce their intentions to offer the highly anticipated Palm Pre. AT&T's CEO commented along similar lines on Wednesday. Sprint's exclusive deal on the Pre will supposedly expire at the end of 2009.
For longtime Palm watchers this development is quite a surprise as these two carriers have typically dragged their feet when it comes to offering new Palm devices. While T-Mobile has not offered a Palm device since the Treo 600, AT&T and Verizon have typically offered the latest Palm devices many months (if not years) behind Sprint. Of course, the comments could also be taken as defensive measures given that the CEO's are trying to prevent any customers they can from jumping ship to a competing carrier.
Shares of Palm Inc stock are up nearly ten percent on the comments today. At the time of publication, PALM is trading at 11.49 up 0.96 (9.12%) on the day. Shares of Sprint have taken a slight hit but are mostly even on the day at 5.06.
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RE: I'll believe it when they are actually in stock
But, the article is probably dead wrong. The 6 months that VZW & ATT wait has nothing to do with the exclusive. That's how long it will take their crack marketing staffs to work with Palm programmers to create enough indiidualized bloatware and cripples to make their Pre versions unique to their network. Can't wait to get my ATT Pre with 3 second lag between each gesture. :-
Actually, I wonder what the odds of getting a Euro GSM model hacked for US nets?
Pat Horne
RE: I'll believe it when they are actually in stock
Also, surprisingly, VZW has traditionally (emphasis on that) not been as bad of an offender as AT&T or Sprint as far as loading their Palm WM & Garnet devices up with bloatware. Heck, they don't even include VersaMail in ROM!
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: I'll believe it when they are actually in stock
NO? Verizon just cripples the phones and many of the better features that work on the Sprint Network do not function on the Verizon oneThat and they usually run slower!! PALM PRE on Sprint FTW!! I had a few phones on Verzon and had friends and family on Sprint,some having the same models and their phones would do so much more then my Verizon branded model. BLE#$%CKKKK VERIZON will never go back because they wil cripple features on this too.
RE: I'll believe it when they are actually in stock
And as far as "better features that work on the Sprint Network", what precisely are you talking about? The $99 Everything plan? Sprint Music? Sprint's Nascar & NFL apps? Clearly, if you compare the Verizon Centro & 755p vs. the Sprint versions of those same devices, you have a LOT less bloatware and junk in ROM on the Verizon versions.
If you recall, only Verizon's version of the Treo 700wx received an official Windows Mobile 6 update. Everyone else's 700wx, Sprint included, was left hanging at WM 5.2.
Sprint's definitely the better value proposition (especially with a grandfathered SERO plan) and has a more compelling of handsets. But Verizon's customer service and coverage are superb.
Since I'm tied to VZW through my employer for the time being, switching to another carrier is not an option so I'll continue to make the most of whatever Verizon offers us.
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->?
Verizon Pre
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I'll believe it when they are actually in stock
Verizon lagged everyone else on offering the Treo 600, 650, 700wx, 755p and Centro. They did deut the 700p simultaneously with Sprint and had the exclusive debut of the 700w. They never offered the 800w or Treo Pro.
That said, the one advantage of having a Verizon-branded Palm device is that it usually arrives with all of the initial bugs worked out and with a ROM update or two already onboard.
While I'm still skeptical of this rumor, especially in light of recent reports that the Storm 2 could be out as early as June or July, if it does happen I could really see Verizon pushing hard to offer a 16GB Pre before anyone else...or at least waiting until the device is fairly stable and has received a few updates at the expense of early Sprint adopters.
Either way, I intend to trudge along with my 755p for the remainder of the year or maybe pick up a cheap VZW Centro to tide me over.
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->?