14 DAY TRIAL // Palm Pre, probably the most anticipated mobile phone of the year, will go on sale starting tomorrow on the airwaves of the wireless carrier Sprint. And while previously the carrier was expected to have the device exclusively until the end of the ongoing year, we learn now that it might actually have it for much longer than that.
According to the latest news around the web, Sprint Nextel's CEO Dan Hesse recently stated that the carrier would have the Pre exclusively for a longer period of time, and that Verizon and AT&T, both waiting to add the handset to their offerings in a six months, would have to wait a little longer.
“They need to check their facts,” Hesse said in an interview at a press event in New York, Cnet reports. “That just is not the case. Both Palm and Sprint have agreed not to discuss the length of the exclusivity deal. But I can tell you it's not six months.”
Hesse's words come to deny previous statements made by Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, who said last week that the carrier expected to be able to start offering the Palm Pre for its customers in about six months from now, revealing that they should see phones “like the Palm Pre and a second-generation Storm” on its network. Also last week, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson stated the same thing.
Both Sprint and Palm have high expectations when it comes to the Pre, as they need the handset to prove successful and to allow them to become more competitive on the market. Given the fact that Sprint was believed to have the Pre exclusively only throughout 2009, there were some that said the device wouldn't be able to help the carrier too much, yet it seems that things are not that way in the end.