Sprint CEO Dan Hesse: No Palm Pre for Verizon anytime soon

Well this sure puts an stop to Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s claim that they’ll have the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, as well as a BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Storm 2, available on their network within about six months. Verizon recently made waves by publicly saying that they too would offer the Palm Pre in the near future, but the language used in the statement danced around any specific mention of the Pre launching with Verizon in 2009. We now have confirmation straight from Sprint (NYSE: S) CEO Dan Hesse that Verizon’s statement on that matter is “just not the case.”

Neither Palm nor Sprint has commented on Sprint’s Palm Pre exclusivity period, and Hesse refused to directly confirm that Sprint’s Palm Pre exclusivity agreement with Palm was good for more than six months. Still, the likeable public face of Sprint did say that there’s “a good chance” [wink, wink] that the contract covers Sprint into 2010.

To be fair, Verizon did say that they expect to have the Palm Pre “Over the next six months or so,” which gives the company a lot of wiggle room. Given Hesse’s latest statements, we might not see the Palm Pre on Verizon Wireless until well into 2010.

[Via: Cnet]