WSJ: Verizon getting Pre in January 2010? 46
by Derek Kessler
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 8:33 am EDT
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 8:33 am EDT 
‘Ole Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO extraordinaire, just days ago put the smackdown on Verizon, telling them to “check their facts” and declaring that Sprint’s exclusivity with the Pre was longer than six months, and Sprint themselves have said that they have an exclusive on the Pre at least through 2009. According to the Wall Street Journal’s source - a person familiar with the situation - the Palm Pre will land with big V in January 2010. That’s both after the close of 2009 (by virtue of being 2010), and also longer than the six months Ivan Seidenberg spouted off (seven months, to be precise). Adding the Pre to Verizon would nearly triple Palm’s addressable market share.
[via: PreThinking]
Thanks to everyone that sent this in!
46 Comments
Woo hoo!! I can't wait. I can't afford to pay a cancellation fee to Verizon and buy the Pre on Sprint. Also, most of the people I call and text are on Verizon, so I don't use up minutes calling and texting them.
I know it's not great news for Sprint, but I bet Palm would easily sell 100k Pre's the weekend it comes out on Verizon.
Putting money aside now to get the Pre and all the accessories - Jan 2010!
NO! you guys have everything...your not getting OUR phone!!!
Are you retarded?
Sorry to ask but from Aust is Verizon a CDMA network?
I really want some GSM Flavoured Pre =]
yes verizon is cdma
I'm glad about this.
I'm not ignorant to the fact Apple has sold many iPhones but I'm sure they would be completely dominating the market if they opened themselves up to other networks.
Palm will reap the benefits of more people getting their hands on the Pre through greater app development by official third parties as well as individuals when more hacks finally emerge.
I do feel sorry for Sprint though. Not that many people were probably going to jump from the other networks to get a Pre. Assuming Palm is going to bust out expansive new updates for the Pre in the coming months and onward to make things even better on the phone, Sprint would have had an exclusive that could entice more users to join.
If it's true Verizon picks up the Pre in 6 months, Sprint's hope needs to be placed in the fact they have the cheaper plans and hope Palm and hackers/homebrewers will expand on the potential the Pre has as an iphone rival and all around cool device.
No! you guys get everything...your not taking OUR phone!!!
Ivan Seidenberg (CEO of Verizon overall)? All the commentary I've seen has cited Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless (and Seidenberg's successor in that role) rather than Seidenberg.
Bet you the Pre on Verizon wouldn't have wi-fi.
yes it would the omnia has wifi RIM was just stupid enough not to put it on the storm
Or unlocked GPS. Or the full 8GB of storage. Or reasonable data plans. Or... /tease
My question is....what features are going to be stripped out of the phone for use on Verizon's service? I just switched over to sprint after being a Verizon customer for 8 years. I'm tired of having to hack every phone I get, just to get the features the phone is capable of. Hopefully Verizon loosens up a bit, but I have my doubts. I'd hate to see Sprint go away. Their pricing plans are great. I'm paying $20 less a month, with the same minutes and more features than when i was with Verizon. Imagine if there was no Sprint, Verizon and At&t would own the market and prices would only climb... they can only go so high right now, without risking major customer loss to Sprint, trying to justify their "better" service.
they never stripped out ANYTHING for the storm or the omnia so i hate whenever people say that
That's funny, cause the truth hurts... I know, cause Ive been there... I just came from using the Omnia...I don't know if you include gps under the "ANYTHING" category, but I had to flash to a hacked rom, just to get third party gps , or other location based software (google maps for instance) just because Verizon striped out the ability to access the gps radio, other than for their own Vz navigator service... a $10 a month extra fee, might I add. I had to tweak that phone in so many ways, just to get around the Verizon frontend... When it was all done, it was a pretty sweet phone, just could'nt hold a candle to what what can be done with the Pre.
the omnia was garbage anyways hey never stripped out any of the storms stuff
The storm is a piece of junk as well.. there are posts all over the place with people having problems with them. That and the click screen abortion! Good in theory... ridiculous in use...
verizons network is still beastly
And Sprint roams free of charge on it!
Well in Feburary I will have had my Pre for 9 months, so if Sprint does release a Pre successor, or a landscape slider, or a WiMax Device. All us Pre early adopters will be able to buy the new phone at the subsidized price on Sprint. Thank god they dont make you wait the two years to renew your contract.
59.99 for 400 mins? Both Verizon and Sprint are thieves as far as I am concerned.
I pay 49.99 for unlimited mins with Tmobile and 9.99 for unlimited data and I can use my GSM phone anywhere in the world.
At&t wants $30 for data for the iphone. Not cool. Tmobile is the best when it comes to pricing.
and tmobile is the worst when it comes to service
funny when I go look at tmobile's plans the only unlimited minute plans I see start at $99 and that doesn't include data.
oh no... I hope this can be verified soon. I have both a Verizon and now a Sprint account. I was waiting to see if I was going to keep the Pre before cancelling Vzw.
Now I'm torn -- do I return the Sprint Pre and wait for it to come to Verizon or do I just continue on the path I'm already on.
Why wouldn't you keep the Pre on Sprint? Your monthly plan would be less with Sprint, and you get to roam free on the Verizon network. I don't really see any reason to be on Verizon unless you're already locked into a contract.
keep the sprint service and save yourself some money... within a couple of months, the app catalog will be in full swing, the bugs will be worked out and you'll have a perfectly working device. Wait till Jan... and you will be starting all over with Verizon. They won't leave the device untouched... it will have Verizon all over it! Sprint seems to be much more open to allowing customers flexibility as to how they use their device.
Not just that, but there are bound to be a few new bugs with the new VZW release. Not as many, sure. But some. Why go through suffering the early adopter penalties twice?
unfortunately Sprint does not have service in several of my travel areas -- I had planned to test run the Pre in the most frequent areas to see if things have changed since I last had Sprint
But sprint has free roaming on verizon's network, so if there is verizon coverage, then you will get sprint coverage. I had sprint years ago, then switched to verizon for the past 8, after a short lived experience with Omnipoint (remember them?) Sprint has much improved from when they first came out.
I think Verizon gets the Pre-II, in January the Pre-Classic as we know now, is almost antique ;-)
Any thoughts or signs for the GSM version in Europe?
Nice stock rise today BTW:
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:PALM
Richard
Verizon is the worst. I had cancelled my service with them a few years ago, and they kept sending me a bill. I contiually called them each month and asked why they were still sending me a bill. They would always apologize and credit me back the amount that was on the bill and tell me that the account was closed. This went on for about 4 months. On the fifth month, I again received a bill, this time it had a one minute call that was logged on the account. I again called them and explained the same thing that I had explained the previous 4 months. I spoke with a CSR Supervisor and they said that since there was a one minute call received to that number the preceeding month that I was responsible for the entire months bill, even though no activity was shown on the account or to/from that number in the last 4 months. So evidently, someone called my old Verizon number that didn't know I had a new cell number, and it ended up costing me $52 or Verizon was going to turn me over to a collection agency if it remained unpaid. I know we all have horror stories of bad service from every cell phone provider, but personally, Verizon is the worst of the worst. Just my .02.
syncing apps are available now for windows and mac. just hit the app catalog.
Why is this rumor being rehashed again? Did you forget about this?... http://www.precentral.net/pre-vs-storm-verizon-internal-document-smackdo... Why would Verizon bring on a device they're trying to trash? I am sure Palm is not happy about that misleading document, Verizon hasn't been friendly with Palm over the years either. From what I've heard Sprints exclusive is 9 months (Hesse did say it's longer than 6 months), with the successful launch of the Pre, Sprint is sure to get an extension on the exclusive period.
This is how it works inside every Cellular Carrier. This isn't trashing one device over the other, its providing selling points to just make a sale.
I realize that, it is trashing because it's misleading, these documents are for direct competing devices, i.e, you won't see a comparison between the Storm and the Samsung Rant. The Pre is a direct competing device to the Storm. I do not see the Pre going to Verizon, maybe some other webOS device in the future, but not the Pre. Most people understand Verizon is simply trying to undermine Sprint and at the same time keep their customers from switching to Sprint. Sprint does all the work, advertising, promotions, etc, and Verizon gets rewarded?? I don't think so!
You are retarded. Decisions are made based on financial questions not on childish accusations. If Palm gets a good offer from Verizon they will go there as well.
First off, with that kind of username no one will take you serious. Secondly, so far you've called two users retarded, which is "childish" in it's self, yet in your ill informed comments you imply someone is making "childish accusations". Pot-meet-kettle!
NO!! verison ALWAYS gets the awesome cool phones...SPRINT NEEDS THE PALM PRE!! AT&T has the iphone, verison has the blackberry touch....WHY CANT SPRINT JUST HAVE THIS PHONE TO THEMSELVES!!!
God this is so unfair...
Why can we just have one phone for ourselves? Huh? Tell me!!
I don't think I'd consider having the Blackberry Storm a good thing.
Yeah, the omnia is probably Verizon's most feature rich phone ( after hacks!) Would probably make a decent Android device. Winmo kills it! Wasn't that out on sprint long before Verizon? I've always thought verizons phones were well behind the others.. probably due to their need to have full control over the device.
This would be great, though unlike, Verizon to roll a device out that quickly. I hope it's true and that they don't cripple it and/or make it some funky color like they do with other devices.
Please Verizon, deliver it when promised, uncrippled (with improvements), and with the a black, rubberized back. I for one would buy it in a heart-beat.
I'm a current Verizon customer who is planning to switch to Sprint when my contract ends in September. I do NOT trust Verizon not to tamper with the Pre and lock down aspects for their own services/control.
If Sprint roams on Verizon's towers, why is it that whenever I have no service with Sprint, my friend's Verizon phone works fine? My mother has a Sprint phone for personal use and a Verizon phone from her company. She travels a lot through rural northern IL and often has no service from Sprint but great service on her Verizon phone when they are side by side in her car. I can't make a call in my house from my Sprint phones, my old Q9c or my new Pre, but my neighbor has full signal on his Verizon phone in the same room as me.
I always hear about the roaming on Verizon's towers, but then why do these things occur?
If you set your device to only detect Sprints network, you will not be able to roam on Verizons. If you set your device to automatic, your device should switch to Verizons network when you're out of Sprints coverage area, providing you're in Verizons coverage area.
How do u set device to automatic?
I wish some one had told me this. I just cancelled all three phone lines to switch to Sprint so we could get the Pre. But I'm not all that upset. I have the Pre and that makes me happy. So life is good.