Hasta La Gadget!

The exact duration and wording of Sprint’s exclusivity agreement with Palm for the Pre has everyone wondering — perhaps no one more than the carrier’s competitors, who are blatantly champing at the bit to steal Sprint’s thunder and launch new Palm hardware of their own. Sprint had already officially refuted Verizon’s claim that it’d get its own Pre in “about six months” by saying that the deal lasted through 2009, but now, none other than Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is taking a swing at his archrival, saying Verizon needs to “check its facts” over the deal. The dude was clearly choosing his words carefully and refused to comment on exactly how long the company would have a lock on the Pre, but he “can tell [us] it’s not six months.” That could mean it’s three, seven, nine, or 48 — we really don’t know — but either way, Sprint’s real challenge here is that it probably doesn’t have webOS exclusivity, which means its competitors should be free to launch other Palm designs whenever they like.

[Image via I Can Has Cheezburger?]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Sprint’s Dan Hesse: Verizon needs to “check its facts” on Pre exclusivity originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By now, you know precisely what the Palm Pre is capable of. You know the ins and outs of the user experience, and you’ve probably got a solid idea of whether or not you’ll be lined up come June 6th to claim one as your own. But here’s a side you probably haven’t heard: the voice of the design team. At long last, the masterminds behind Palm’s comeback phone have finally sat down to talk about the build process and what drove them to create both the Pre and webOS. Not surprisingly, most of it came from the desire to truly revolutionize the mobile experience, one that’s been generally poor for far too long. In separate (but equally awesome) interviews, Michelle Koh and a gaggle of design engineers (including Matias Duarte, Mike Bell, Peter Skillman and Michael Abbott) have opened up to spill their soul on rejuvenating the company with a single product. We won’t issue any spoilers here, but we’d argue that the read links below are required reading if you’re even remotely interested in this handset.

Read – Michelle Koh interview
Read – Design team interview

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre designers sit down to talk, reminisce and revel originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to say what changed between May 20th and today (any ideas, Verizon / AT&T?), but it seems that Sprint’s tone on the impending Pre launch has shifted just a bit. In a new report over at Bits, we’re told that both Sprint and Palm are informing the public to not expect lengthy lines on launch day. Naturally, both firms are spinning this like it’s a good thing, with Palm’s Lynn Fox proclaiming that “[Palm’s] not like Apple.” Mark Elliott, a spokesman for Sprint, even went so far as to say that it was actually attempting to “manage the exact opposite” of long lines, noting that Sprint wanted “each customer to get the experience” rather than being rushed in and out. Honestly, the spin factor was most obvious when he outed this line: “[Success] is not about having a line out the door; it’s about being able to treat each customer and make sure they’re happy with their decision.” Alrighty then.

[Image courtesy of IDR]

Filed under: Cellphones

Sprint and Palm admit that they don’t expect wild lines for Pre originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With only days to go before at least four or five Sprint stores begin selling Palm’s Pre, we’re already seeing at least one employee with some time on his hands give the smartphone a go. Moral of the story? Right about now would be an awesome time to know somebody who can get behind a Sprint counter without using an unlawful amount of force.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pre filtering into Sprint stores, indocile employee sizes it up originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 May 2009 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Palm Pre will be exclusive to Sprint for a weirdly short six months, after which the handset will show up on Verizon, according to CEO Lowell McAdam. They’ll also get the Storm 2 at about the same time.

That the new BlackBerry Storm will be a Verizon phone isn’t surprising, since they carried the first one. The six month outer limit for an arrival date also isn’t that surprising, since we’ve seen early pictures of the device.

The big news here is obviously the Pre, which, although heralded mostly as a savior for a wounded Palm Inc, could also be a much-need exlusive boon for Sprint. From Reuters:

Sprint shares were down 18 cents at $4.89 in late morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange while Palm shares were up $1.15 at $11.68 on Nasdaq.

Well, that about sums it up. [Reuters]