Summary

- Bad for Sprint as this will stem customers switching from VZW for the Pre- Good for Palm to pick up the #1 US carrier which has the biggest concentration of prosumers- Not great for Palm since the VZW launch will be six months after Sprint and much of the buzz will have subsided

Analysis

The VZW Pre announcement was obviously timed to steal a bit of thunder from Sprint in anticipation of the Pre release this Saturday.  VZW experienced some customer loss with the iPhone launch and did not want to have the same happen esp. when they would be getting the device early next year.  Sprint more directly competes with Verizon with a focus on business and prosumer customers while offering the same network technology (CDMA).  Clearly, this was a minor threat which they were going to get out ahead of with this announcement.


For Palm, this is good but not great news.  It is good that the largest US carrier is picking up this device which has the greatest concentration of their target customers: prosumers.  VZW will push the Pre a decent amount to contrast with the iPhone.  However, given that it'll be six months after launch, much of the buzz will have subsided and Palm will not have the customer control and additional service fees that make up much of Apple's margin/control on the devices.  VZW will probably require some customizations but it will principally be the same device that Sprint has.  VZW will not market it as strongly as AT&T did the iPhone and Palm doesn't have the marketing muscle or cache of Apple to supplement adequately.

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