Until now, AT&T has been exclusive to the iPhone in the US, however Precentral notes that an article in Business Week reports that Verizon is "warming to the idea" of an Apple partnership. Part of the appeal could be a smaller, less expensive model, "described by a person who has seen it as an iPhone lite". If Verizon ends up getting an iPhone, it could close the door for the webOS Palm Pre to join the biggest CDMA network in the US, once Sprint exclusivity ends.
The network previously balked at distributing the iPhone, but "has no animosity towards Apple". Also notable is that some of Palm's latest offerings, including the Treo 800w and Treo Pro have been declined by Verizon, which may not bode well for the Pre.
Overseas the outlook may be more promising for Palm, with the European release closing in. Palm's Paul Ghent states that the company is going through the final stages and validation in deciding a strategy and partners for Europe, reports Precentral. Ghent was sniped from HTC Europe back in January to become the sales vice president of Palm's European division.
Vodafone could be the first GSM provider of the Pre if they can secure a contract, and were rumored to be in negotiations with Palm last month, although Movistar and O2 may also be competing for a European contract.
Because the Pre has made its way onto the portals of at least 18 countries, we should be seeing many more international carriers getting in on the action as time passes. One site is so confident that a GSM version is coming soon that they are even taking Pre-Orders for an unlocked model, reports EverythingPre, although it is questionable if or when such an order would materialize.
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