The Story
It looks like the Palm Pre might not be coming to Verizon after all. Previous reports and claims from Verizon itself had suggested that the US’ largest wireless providers would be offering the Pre to customers, but now word is going around that Verizon may be choosing to forgo the Pre altogether. A Palm representative who was reached for contact’s response was that Palm never named Verizon as a partner.
The factors behind the decision to leave the Pre by the wayside are a few sensible ones. First is that the Pre did not sell like hotcakes the way that many people in the mobile space had predicted. Additionally, Verizon seems to be focusing mainly on BlackBerry devices and Android handsets.
It’s The First One
Let’s just flat-out say it: the reason Verizon is avoiding the Pre is because they don’t expect it to sell well. Done. That second justification is plain bogus. If a phone is going to sell well, a wireless provider doesn’t care what operating system it runs. Though many companies do this, it’s not like Verizon or anyone else has to do work specific for a handset. Verizon’s job is to sell phones, subsidize the more expensive products, and provide a network.
If the phone isn’t selling well or if Verizon does not think it will be a big hit, then why should they go through the process of offering the device? Apple takes a cut of revenue from many of the iPhone providers around the world. These providers thought about the potential appeal of the iPhone and decided it would be worth it to go ahead with the deal. So this transaction is like most any other in business: if you don’t think you’ll make money, you don’t do it.
This of course is terrible news for Palm as it is depending on the Pre and the whole WebOS line of products to bail it out of the gutters. One way to expedite sales of a product is enable more potential customers to buy it. Without Verizon’s backing, things for John Rubenstein and co have become a whole lot harder.
