Verizon executive confirms Pre in January 2010 55
The Pre on Verizon, yes or no? TheStreet.com says no, analysts say yes. Palm isn’t saying anything, except for “more carriers.” So that leaves Verizon as the only interested party that hasn’t spoken up. Well, now they have, with Jim Gerace, Executive Director of Media Relations at Verizon, telling E-Commerce Times that Big Red will indeed have the Pre next year, and in January at that.
There are still hurdles to overcome in the negotiations between carrier and manufactuer. E-Commerce Times says that there is still ongoing discussion over how much subsidization Verizon will apply to the sale price, and what Palm will give in return (e.g. advertising). Also at odds, the app store concept, where Palm is gearing up for a paid App Catalog upgrade while Verizon is still moving to put together its own app store that it wants to supersede device app stores.
So let’s put this story to rest here and now. Verizon will carry the Pre next year. There are still some details to be worked out between now and January, but both Verizon and Palm are committed to getting webOS onto Big Red.
Thanks to George for the tip!
55 Comments
Any word on whether they will get the Pixi as well?
No, Sprint has exclusivity on the Pixi for at least 6 months.
FWIW, Eric Savitz at Barron's Tech Blog said this today:
"Meanwhile, I
I think the Pixi will be on sprint for a little while before moving to other carriers. Let's not forget about Verizon's inventory peep that had the "C40", which I believe now is the Pixi. The sooner to others, the better for PALM. WOOT-WOOT to the GSM Pre...
The C40 was on a Sprint inventory screen, not Verizon: http://www.precentral.net/new-palm-phones-sprint-inventory-p120-and-c40
Verizon's inventory shows a P101 and P121: http://www.precentral.net/mystery-palm-devices-appear-verizon-database-p...
"Also at odds, the app store concept, where Palm is gearing up for a paid App Catalog upgrade while Verizon is still moving to put together its own app store that it wants to supersede device app stores."
Another reason that I will never again have Verizon.
It would really suck if the app store falls into verizon's hands.
Verizon will ruin the ohone like they do all other phones.
Remember the htc?
Verizon will ruin the ohone like they do all other phones.
Remember the htc?
Agreed, there is no way that Verizon can NOT screw this up.
Verizon will ruin the phone like they do all other phones.
Remember the htc? It stunk when verizon zapped it of ram
Verizon will ruin the ohone like they do all other phones.
Remember the htc?
Pre at Verizon? But, the analyst had all this info saying they'd soured on Pre!!
No wonder Scott Moritz has no hair! He pulled it all out BACK when it bothered him that he was alway WRONG!!!!
Good news this is... More support for Pre we will have...
Honestly, I don't like Verizon, but their screwing up of phones has gotten better. Both of their latest WinMo devices have been good (Ozone even has WiFi over the Sprint Snap), Storm 2 will have WiFi. I don't think that they will screw this one up. And another carrier with the Pre can only be better for Palm. I am kinda worried about how the App Catalog will work though.
If you're on Sprint, the app catalog will work fine. If you're on Verizon, don't expect many power apps.
Ask yourselves this question, how can Verizon schedule a launch "as planned" for the Pre, when Verizon does not even have a contract? I still say Verizon is blowing smoke, for all we know Sprint could have extended their contract.
You're a smart guy. When the Verizon CEO was mouthing off back in June that they were getting the Pre, Verizon probably already had a contract with Palm or were real close. And I bet the app store has already been settled. Palm's plans were known early in the year so I can't see why they would be haggling over it now. What MAY be a problem is the price that Sprint is selling the Pre for. $79.99 now? I don't think Verizon was expecting that. And they may be pressing Palm for concessions because of that.
You're not very smart, how in the hell can Verizon have a contract when Sprint is still under contract with the option to extend the contract??
Ok, I take it back. You're not that smart a guy and don't know how much time and money is involved in putting a phone on a carrier's network. This stuff is committed to months in advance. I thought you were one of the few who figured this out. Guess not.
What about "EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT" don't you understand?!? Palm CANNOT enter into a contract with another "American" carrier until the contract with Sprint is satisfied. Sprint has the option to extend the contact as well. Hesse went on record saying Sprints contract, "is more than six months."
Lets see, First it off, now its on? Even though they are still in negotiations over money and App stores. Anyone wonder how this will end? Pre on Verizon with mandatory data package. Extra for GPS and TV, Verizon App and Music store. Oh boy sounds yummy, NOT!!!!!!!! I hope that Verizon leaves the Pre alone. Just imagine all the Verizon customers buy a crippled and VZW Pre, most would blame Palm, not VZW. If VZW leaves the Pre fully functional great, if not Palm does not need them IMO. They still have AT&T and T-Mobile they can put the Pre on (and if VZW gets the Pre, I hope they still put it on AT&T and T-Mobile).
This is bad, Verizon won't just "might" ruin the app store they "will" ruin the WebOS app store and mess up everything! This will give every person a bad taste in the mouth about EVER owning another Palm device again!
It may not be as good as on Sprint (where Sprint exists), but at least if Verizon gets the Pre then I can have one. I don't need GPS or unlimited text messages or anything other than a phone and unlimited data. And some COVERAGE. Try using the Pre without EVDO all the time--I did it for a month, and it wasn't fun. I'd rather have a Pre with EVDO and a crappy app store than a Pre that constantly gets 90 kbps with 2 seconds of latency.
You must not have had roaming and data roaming turned on. I went from south Florida to the Great Smokey Mountains in Tennessee. I had both voice and data the whole trip. At the cabin in the mountains I had 3 bars inside and 5 outside. AT&T users wandered around the yard looking for service.
If you do some research you will find that Sprint with roaming has the BEST coverage of ANY NETWORK. Roaming is free on the plans for the Pre.
Indeed, roaming on Verizon fills in nicely where Sprint doesn't have a tower. And vice versa. In CDMA land, they have to work together to keep ATT in check. ATT knows how to market, if it were not for their lackluster wireless hardware, it would be came over.
Oh, if only it were that simple. Having voice and data is not the issue. 3G vs 2G data is the issue. Yes I have roaming turned on. No, it doesn't make the data come in any faster! Even when I have a full Sprint signal the data is still stuck at horribly slow speeds because Sprint has no EVDO (3G data) in my area. Even if I were to hack the phone to force roaming onto Verizon's network it still wouldn't help because Sprint and Verizon only have an agreement for 1x data roaming, not EVDO. Well, that last bit is not entirely true because Sprint subscribers have access to the EVDO towers that Verizon bought from Alltel, but Alltel never existed in my area, either.
Roaming or otherwise, the PreCentral mobile site takes several minutes to fully load without EVDO. It is almost completely unusable. I did not have a good experience with the Pre when it was stuck at less than twice dial-up modem speed.
Sprint has the best EVDO coverage, where are you that it is so horrible?
I am located in State College, PA (central PA). It's not that the EVDO coverage is bad, it's that it's nonexistent. Sprint has no EVDO equipment on their towers around here. All they have around here is what they picked up in the Nextel merger, I think.
I moved here for grad school right around the time the Pre came out only to discover that for whatever reason Sprint has decided to forsake the 200,000 people that live here.
Verizon have been putting similar rumors our there about the iphone, if the Hero does well on Sprint Verizon will again throw out a similar rumor.
I wish they find something better to talk about. tomorrow they going to go back and talk about itunes. then nest week verizon again then itunes then something else that doesnt have to do with sprint palm pre. this is getting wack and wacker.
If you have a suggestion for what we can talk about, we're all ears.
For those who say this won't affect sprint customers, look at the delay in the paid app store and tell me that isn't an effect..
..small but sure
I don't think that Palm's negotiations with Verizon would have an affect on their planned roll-out of the pay App Catalog. If anything, it's probably testing after making a few last minute tweaks (such as updated iTunes sync) to 1.2.
I, for one, am not too excited about this...
I was happy actually having an exclusive device, and it should have stayed exclusive for at least a whole year.
Sprint seemed like the guinea pig to work out all the kinks, and now Verizon, of course, will get this device that has already fixed our original issues.
Kind of sucks, in my opinion. One year exclusivity...thats all I would ask...
Unless you work for Sprint or have financial ties to the company, I don't see why you would care whether or not Sprint has an exclusive on the Pre. So long as the coverage is good and you get good technical and customer support when you need it, why does it matter to you if its an exclusive?
I don't understand. Your life is somehow improved by the fact that you have a phone that's limited to one cell carrier? My life is dis-improved by that fact because Sprint is nonexistent in my area except for the bits of Nextel it picked up around here. Does my pain give you pleasure??!! I'm dying here, have some compassion!
Who Has The Best Mobile Broadband Coverage?
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1339907
And The Winner Is
How is this for research? I tried a Pre, a friend's AT&T smartphone, and another friend's 3G Verizon phone. In State College, PA, AT&T and Verizon have 3G. Sprint has a very weak 2G signal. This was a Nextel market before Sprint bought them out. Sprint has chosen not to bring EVDO to this area.
I have looked at the coverage maps. Sprint coverage is virtually nonexistent in the northeast except around Boston and Philly, AT&T is a little better, and Verizon is much better. I have also had Sprint for 6 years and traveled extensively in ME, NH, VT, MA, NY, RI, and PA. If you live in the northeast and you aren't in a major metro area then you are FAR better off with Verizon. AT&T is a little better than Sprint in this area, but it still has nowhere near the coverage of Verizon. I don't know anything about the rest of the country, but in the northeast and away from major metros, Verizon is king and Sprint is very poor.
Sprint broadband may be extensive elsewhere, but I can tell you for a fact that it does not exist in central PA. You might argue that there are a lot of things that don't exist in central PA, but that doesn't seem to have stopped AT&T or Verizon from bringing fast 3G coverage to the area.
Both Sprint's coverage map and the unlit EVDO indicator on the 30 day trial Pre I had (as well as the Treo 755p I've gone back to) tell me that I have no broadband here!
The Verizon version of this phone is going to suck big time. When i first heard Verizon was going to have the pre i thought "great a great phone on a great network" then reality sunk in they have some of the most locked down POS phones that you can get plus the have way to expensive phone plans. So i went with sprint and never looked back. Now lets just hope Verizon doesn't make our pre even more locked down because of some of their requirements.
This is Awsome! I know verizon will probably disable some stuff on it the but I can`t switch to sprint.The pre will be verizon`s best phone so far even with it being disabled.Who knows, maybe it will be fine.If they do disable it,I will still have all the features I want.
Given the recent decisions Vzw has made for most smartphones, the Pre will definitely have wifi, unlocked gps(but still offer their own navi software at a price), whatever bluetooth protocols palm adds in, and Palm's own App Catalog unrestricted.
Everybody should stop being so negative and let's cheer on the one thing that we all care about here, The Pre!
Hey Verizon: Shove your VZ app store.
seems far from a done deal.
To make no bones about it, this is great news for Palm!!
Another carrier means a wider customer base which is what Palm desperately need to keep the momentum going. This combined with the great stock price rises and the UK/EU release bodes well for a real purple patch for Palm. Lets face it without that run they would be struggling.
I don't mind if they don't have the Pixie as long as they have the Pre, the Pixie will then no doubt come in due course.
They will not screw the app store becuase Palm won't let them. My suspicion is Palm would rather walk away than let that happen. Considering the Palm App store is basically ready to go they would be foolish (suicidal)to allow any other store to take priority
For sure, we know Verizon is subpar for power users. But they already have a zillion people that like their Koolaid and are looking for something that has the legs of Iphone, so its the VZN customers burden, not ours. We just need a seperate forum for all the VZN customers complaining about spending a lot more and getting a little less than Sprint users.
I'm glad to see that VZW is adding it. Hopefully more developers for apps and a long, productive future for the Pre. Personally, I'm already on Sprint and with Sprint price, my family is now here too. I never thought I'd leave VZW, I loved VZW service.
I wish customers who stayed with VZW all the best of luck, but I don't miss the VZW cost.
Sethneds, why can't you switch? Do you live way out in the sticks?
Does Verizon roam on Sprint, or is being on Verizon like being on one carrier vs. being on two with Sprint? I know one thing; I have had to call Verizon a few times about my work phone. THEIR customer service SUCKS!!! Sprint customer service is almost flawless! Why anyone in any city is on VZW or AT&T leaves me scratching my head.
Verizon getting the Pre is great news as long as Verizon locks the phone and not Palm. If Palm starts putting Video on the back burner because half their phones aren't even allowed to have it, then we have an issue!
Why do people love verizon so much? I don't get it. they charge you retarded prices with out GPS and you like that?
Get a real carrier. Any mobile Hello!
Ok, so I guess I don't get this. Having never been with VZW what can they disable on the pre that can't be re-enabled with homebrew and rooting?
Mikey47, your right, however have you read some of the Sprint reviews on the Pre? They are horrible. People knock the phone because they don't know about or are not willing to hack it. When it requires work to get the device to operate the way you want it to, people instead just complain. So then the phone gets talked shit about and most of us here don't want to see that happen because we know how great this phone is. If VZW impedes the phone more than it is out of the box it looks bad for Palm.
I want the Palm Pre on Verizon really bad!
Okay i dunno if anybody else feels how i feel but Im not at all happy about this. I dont want to be the negative person on this but I think the Palm Pre shouldv'e been strictly Sprint. For these reasons, Iphone is only available to AT&T (legal authorized purchase) Blackberry Storm is only available to Verizon and Tmoble has the G1 and now My Touch. I purchased the Pre because I could't get the Iphone due to contract with Sprint. I had already had Sprint and it would've cost more to gain Iphone so instead I stay faithful to my cell phone provider and got the Pre!
Yes, no, maybe. I'll believe this once its actually released. Verizon better be listening to the pre community and know a linux phone needs to be open or it will be fail. Verizon likes to have way too much control of their phones.
Verizon's better than Sprint? Sprint's better than Verizon? You may as well argue Ford vs Chevy or Mac vs PC. It's going to be different in each region - I live near Sprint's original headquarters in Carlisle PA (back when they were just a LEC). I have better coverage with Sprint than I ever had with AT&T or Verizon.My guess is that my parents who live near Bell Labs might have better Verizon and/or AT&T coverage.