![]() AT&T uses a different network technology from Sprint. mobile service, said during a conference on Wednesday that his company would also like to sell Pre but he did not give a timeframe. For example Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of AT&T Inc, the No. Um also said he expects other new Palm phones based on the same operating system as Pre. “However, visibility in an increasingly competitive market is still limited,” the analyst said in a research note. But the analyst predicted increasing competition in the advanced phone market, saying that Motorola “could be the wildcard in the smartphone race” as it has the potential to be most aggressive on price. Some analysts had worried that Palm was limiting Pre’s success by forging an exclusive agreement with Sprint, which lasts at least until year-end, as first reported by Reuters in February and confirmed by Sprint on Thursday.Īs a result, UBS analyst Maynard Um said Verizon’s Pre news was encouraging for Palm investors. “You can expect to see us launch a steady stream of new devices from multiple vendors.” “Over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre and a second generation Storm” on the Verizon Wireless network, McAdam said. Also slated are devices from Motorola Inc and phones based on Android, the Google Inc mobile system. Verizon Wireless said its phone line-up would also include a new version of the touchscreen controlled BlackBerry Storm from Research In Motion Ltd and a new BlackBerry called Tour. mobile service, will offer Pre in “six months or so,” company Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said during a conference webcast. ![]() Pre is also seen as key to helping stem customer losses at Verizon’s smaller rival Sprint Nextel Corp, which is launching the Pre exclusively on June 6. Palm is depending heavily on Pre to galvanize its business and regain market share from rivals such as Apple Inc. mobile service Verizon Wireless said Pre would be part of its upcoming device line-up, sending Palm shares 8.8 percent higher. Palm Inc's iPhone competitor Pre got an unexpected boost on Thursday as No. Verizon did not respond to a request for comment.A Verizon Wireless sign is seen at its store in Westminster, Colorado in this Apfile photo. Given the reportedly underwhelming debut of the BlackBerry Z10 at AT&T and Best Buy this past weekend, pushing some risk off on Brightstar may have been a prudent strategy.īlackBerry is set to report earnings before the market opens on Thursday, the same day that the Z10 debuts on Verizon.īlackBerry and Brightstar both declined comment. “It suggests Verizon doesn’t believe this will be a strong seller, since it normally tries to allocate hot product on its own.” “Our checks indicate the order was from Brightstar, whom Verizon is relying upon to handle the big-box retail and dealer agent channels,” Detwiler Fenton managing director Mark Gerber told AllThingsD. Brightstar handles most of Verizon’s big-box retail distribution, and this one-million-handset order could be part of the carrier’s plan to offload some BlackBerry inventory risk on third-party distributors. Sources declined to provide any detail on the BlackBerry-Brightstar deal, but Detwiler Fenton has an interesting theory about the rationale behind it. “A couple of years ago, Nokia, RIM and Samsung made up over 80 percent of Brightstar revenues, with RIM potentially comprising nearly half of that, I believe,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told AllThingsD. “You’ve got the ‘Bright’ part right,” one source quipped. And sources familiar with the deal have confirmed this to AllThingsD, as well. Research house Detwiler Fenton reports that the mysterious “established partner” responsible for the order was Brightpoint rival Brightstar. The order was placed by a wireless distributor, but not by Brightpoint. One like Brightpoint, which has a long-standing relationship with BlackBerry, distributing its handsets throughout the world - particularly in emerging markets like Malaysia. Only a big electronics distributor would take such a risk. ![]() And we answered it with a simple theory: An order so massive for new handsets running an unproven platform would never have been placed by a carrier. We posed that question here earlier this month, following the announcement of the largest single handset purchase in BlackBerry’s history. Who bought one million BlackBerry 10 devices?
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