Sprint's Dan Hesse: Verizon needs to "check its facts" on Pre exclusivity

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?]

[Lare2 @ Jun 5th 2009 11:24AM]

1

[Chris Ziegler @ Jun 5th 2009 11:25AM]

Wow, that's the laziest "first" I've ever seen.

[MacBandit @ Jun 5th 2009 12:39PM]

Ban Hammer please o please!!!

[Andrew88 @ Jun 5th 2009 1:38PM]

Did you get a lot of coloring books as a kid? ^

[Neeko @ Jun 5th 2009 11:28AM]

Go Dan go Dan Go Dan.. now freakn get to work on producing more Pre's. Stop flapping your gum's.. Tomorrow im walking into no more then 2 Bestbuys and i better have a Pre in my hand by 10am or theyll be hell to pay..

I hate rebates so im staying away from Sprint stores unless i can get a 2nd tier rep to waive the $100 rebate.

[whowhatme @ Jun 5th 2009 11:29AM]

This probably has a lot to do with Pogue's video review of the Pre on nytimes.com and his apparent hard-on for verizon.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/06/04/technology/personaltech/1194840704535/palm-pre-obsession.html?scp=1&sq=pogue&st=cse

[Nelson @ Jun 5th 2009 11:59AM]

Damn... I would NOT want to be with the Sprint guys when they see that video.

[Joe @ Jun 5th 2009 1:03PM]

Dan Hesse always seems like a level headed guy on the conference calls, but I'd imagine he'd lay the smack down on Pogue for this one.

And while I still think David Pogue is a big douche, that video is pretty funny.

[Neoprimal @ Jun 5th 2009 5:44PM]

I need to start watching Hannah Montana, seems like a REALLY funny show.
He's right about Sprint service at least.

[naz @ Jun 5th 2009 11:29AM]

That picture is epic

[marky-b @ Jun 5th 2009 11:37AM]

there's a lolcat for every situation

[Ghen @ Jun 5th 2009 1:49PM]

I tried to prove you wrong, but I found a picture for my search
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/482168/

darnit.

[dsteve303 @ Jun 5th 2009 11:30AM]

I think Sprint is just mad that there not 'America's largest and most reliable network' and I think Verizon's just jealous that Sprint doesn't cripple their phones.

[216 @ Jun 5th 2009 11:36AM]

u kno I really wish that Verizon would buy Sprint and absorb in Sprint's idea of "using a CDMA Network WITHOUT CRIPPLING OUR PHONES"

[thatrotierkid @ Jun 5th 2009 12:03PM]

well thats never goin to happen, vz will never stop crippling phones. what we need is for sprint to buy verizon, then we get the better phones/OSes with the verizon network

[asleeponatwinbed @ Jun 5th 2009 12:11PM]

I'm not an Economist or anything, but I'm pretty sure that in order for one company to buy another, the company doing the buying needs to be worth more than the company being bought.

So, clearly that would rule out the possibility of Sprint buying Verizon.

[thatrotierkid @ Jun 5th 2009 12:50PM]

haha ya i kno. just some wishful thinking on my part ^_^

[tekd @ Jun 5th 2009 3:53PM]

I wonder if the Palm Pre has the force roaming mode that the Palm OS Treo's all had. Which basically let you go on Verizon whenever Sprint coverage was spotty. Of course it can't be used all the time since Sprint gets rather annoyed (roaming to other networks is included in their plans but you can't go over half of your minutes or 800, whichever is lower), but since I don't really have to roam all that often it really made up for the places where I had really bad Sprint coverage.

[Nienhan @ Jun 6th 2009 12:15PM]

@ asleeponatwinbed

smaller companies buying big ones happen all the time. In fact, a more famous recent example would be porsche vs volkswagen.

that was almost a shoo-in, but the financial crisis caused porsche to overload in debt. Oh the agonies!

[TRS @ Jun 5th 2009 11:31AM]

I demand MOAR LOLCats as pictures for engadget articles!!!

[Idlemind @ Jun 5th 2009 11:32AM]

I agree.... it makes the articles seem less slanted...

[Jonathan @ Jun 5th 2009 11:44AM]

I really hate these pictures.

[Jonathan @ Jun 5th 2009 12:03PM]

Seriously? I always thought that the people who liked these were the people who use "r" instead of "are" and "u" instead of "you" and I can't stand those people.

[CtrlBurn @ Jun 5th 2009 12:10PM]

lolcats are for anyone who doesn't take things too seriously.

[joe23521 @ Jun 5th 2009 12:45PM]

@Jonathan, r u serious?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[yogi @ Jun 5th 2009 11:37AM]

"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..."

Errr....it's June. "through 2009" is more or less "about six months".

[Aru @ Jun 5th 2009 11:47AM]

Indeed. Throught 2009 is about 7 months, which isn't '6 months'.

My guess? VZW was telling the truth. There's no way a struggling company like Palm would want to lock itself down to one network for an extended period of time.

[Freakin Ijit @ Jun 5th 2009 12:15PM]

A different reporting of the same comment(s):

>>> "...Hesse, however, told technology website CNET News on Friday that Sprint's exclusive
>>> U.S. deal to sell Pre went beyond the end of 2009...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10258187-94.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave

[Kamokazi @ Jun 5th 2009 1:03PM]

@Aru

Exactly. My guess is January 2010. Which is 'about 6 months' by a very, very broad definition of 6 months.

@Freakin

That could mean 12:00:01 1/1/2010. Really, he's going to say anything he can to prevent people from waiting for the Pre on other networks.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Jun 5th 2009 2:05PM]

It's clear that Verizon/ATT will have it in January 2010 and the "not in 6 months" is just semantics relating to the fact that it's more like 7.

The question is, why is nobody just outright saying the date? There must be NDAs and such surrounding this, which is why they're playing with the language rather than just telling the truth.

[Gorilla800lbs @ Jun 5th 2009 11:37AM]

I'd like to point to the fact that the correct wording of the expression Engadget is trying to use is "chomping at the bit", not "champing".

[Chris Ziegler @ Jun 5th 2009 11:39AM]

This debate has been going on ad nauseam -- both are considered acceptable.

[marky-b @ Jun 5th 2009 11:39AM]

is it just me, or do more and more articles these days have really shotty grammar and spelling errors..

[Chris Ziegler @ Jun 5th 2009 11:42AM]

@marky-b: Again, it's not an error.

[Andre @ Jun 5th 2009 11:46AM]

"shoddy"

[whowhatme @ Jun 5th 2009 12:21PM]

@Andre: i think marky-b was trying to make a point.. like how sometimes a word is spelled one way and pronounced another.. like how champ is spelled with an a and pronounced with an o

[karla @ Jun 13th 2009 11:21PM]

Do you know the emails for the CEO of Verizon??

[garynuman @ Jun 5th 2009 11:39AM]

i have been with sprint FOREVER and really cant justify ever leaving them since the discounts i've gotten through the retention dept have accumulated to the point of absurdity (4, yes 4, lines of service, all the extras including their blackberry internet service, navagation, etc.... for $120/mo) so i'm VERY much looking forward to the pre replacing my curve 8330, and VZW getting in in 6 months or not in not way impacted me, however I've started to like this new CEO because a. he does his own commercials and b. apparently he isn't going to stand for people treating sprint like some punk red headed step child anymore

[marky-b @ Jun 5th 2009 11:40AM]

my stepsister has red hair.. bad news.

[Dave @ Jun 5th 2009 11:46AM]

@ garynuman

I too have a sweet deal thanks to Sprint's retention department...4 lines, just under $100 monthly, two on them are unlimited aircards. But how are you going to get them to put a Palm Pre on anything less that an Everything plan?

[Neeko @ Jun 5th 2009 11:46AM]

i totally agree. price is going to keep me at Sprint aslong as i have the good service i do. Regardless of how cool the other carriers phones are. I REFUSE to pay almost $100/month on AT&T when Sprint gives it to me for $55.. Yeah my discounts are that good and im not even a SERO customer.

[Anastasia Wylie @ Jun 5th 2009 11:41AM]

Random FYI: It's "chomping at the bit" not "champing at the bit".

[Chris Ziegler @ Jun 5th 2009 11:41AM]

See above.

[whowhatme @ Jun 5th 2009 11:59AM]

no, it's pronounced like 'chomp' but spelled like 'champ'

[E C S Sucks @ Jun 5th 2009 1:34PM]

No it isn't

[Jon @ Jun 5th 2009 11:45AM]

Heh, I love Sprint and despite the prevailing attitude by the teenyboppers on here... they're a great company and have done a complete 180 in the last number of years.

[mc-fizzle @ Jun 5th 2009 11:55AM]

After reading some of the reviews and all the shots taken at Sprint I have to wonder if Sprint service sucks everywhere other than Texas. I find the service, coverage, voice quality to be better than with my AT&T phone. The customer service has definately improved but I hardly ever call anyway cause I have no problems or issues to bring to CS.

I am quite surprised at the bashing even up to the level of ppl who are reviewing the phone.

[dsteve303 @ Jun 5th 2009 11:57AM]

Sprint CEO - Youz not gettin diz fone.
Verizon CEO - Iz getting dat fone.
Sprint CEO - NO YOUZ NOT.
Verizon CEO - Whyz not.
Sprint CEO - Youz got Storm.
Verizon CEO - But.....Storm suckz.
AT&T CEO - Heyz. Wanna seez the new iPhone?
Verizon & Sprint CEO - Get da fuckz outa here.

[garynuman @ Jun 5th 2009 12:06PM]

@ dave the only difference between my current plan and the everything plan is that i have a set amount of minutes, which i never even come close to using....other than that all the other features are the same as the everything, eg. unlimited data, etc... so it shouldnt be an issue with the pre, i have a bb 8330 on it right now

[Dave @ Jun 5th 2009 12:49PM]

@garynuman

Good luck getting the Palm Pre on that plan. Sounds like we're in a similar situation and I think you're going to run into a road block trying to add the Pre to your existing plan. Sprint did the same thing with the Samsung Instinct requiring specific plans but that didn't bother me in the least then because the Instinct wasn't even a smart phone. You'll have to post another response after the launch and let us no how your luck was. If you get denied on the Pre you might want to consider the HTC Pro2 which Sprint is rolling out in the next few weeks.