Palm’s Pre stuck on Sprint; CEO Hesse says exclusive Palm Pre deal extends longer than six months

“Verizon Wireless’s claims that it will be offering the Palm Pre within six months are not accurate, says Sprint Nextel’s CEO Dan Hesse,” Marguerite Reardon reports for CNET. “‘They need to check their facts,’ Hesse said in an interview at a press event here to launch the Palm Pre. ‘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.’

“Last week, Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless was quoted by Reuters as saying that over the next six months consumers could expect to see devices ‘like the Palm Pre and a second-generation Storm’ on its network,” Reardon reports.

MacDailyNews Take: Operative word: “like.” Meaning, we assume, some other iPhone knockoff with a slide-out antique keyboard perpetually stuck in portrait mode with no apps in its app store that’s about to get steamrolled by iPhone 3.0.

Reardon continues, “There is a lot riding on the success of the much-hyped Palm Pre for Sprint. The company has struggled over the last year to repair its badly damaged reputation as a wireless provider that offers poor customer support and unreliable network performance.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Palm’s Pre. Stuck on Sprint.™ Now, there’s a selling point. (smirk)