Back in May, Verizon hinted that it would begin to offer the Palm Pre as soon as Sprint’s exclusivity period ended. A new report now suggests that Verizon may have changed its mind and that the Pre is no longer in its plans. TheStreet.com cites “people close to the discussions” as its source.
A number of reasons are cited for the decision. First, Palm Pre sales have not met expectations with less than a million sold at Sprint to date. Second is that Verizon wants to push its VCast application store, a competitor to Palm’s own online store. Lastly, it appears that Verizon is set for a big marketing push for new RIM BlackBerry and Motorola Google Android devices and may not want to dedicate resources to yet another device and operating system.
It remains to be seen if the Palm Pre will make an appearance at AT&T.
Update: The Boy Genius is reporting that this story is in fact false. Their own sources confirm that the Palm Pre will be headed to Verizon. This follows news that a number of analysts have also expressed doubt over this story.