Verizon Wireless will formally introduce the Palm Pre and Pixi smartphones this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, according to a Bloomberg report. The debut will give Palm a second U.S. wireless partner--and the backing of the nation's largest carrier.
The report, which cited an unnamed source familiar with the matter, did not include any pricing details for the phones at Verizon.
Verizon Wireless last year confirmed plans to offer webOS smartphones from Palm. Currently, both Palm's Pixi and Pre are offered in the U.S. exclusively by Sprint Nextel. The Pre currently sells for $150 with a two-year contract at Sprint, while the Pixi is $99 with a contract.
Palm scheduled an event at CES on Thursday, where it may formally announced the Verizon partnership. The company first unveiled its Pre and webOS platform at the trade show last year.
Analysts expect a deal with Verizon to dramatically increase Palm's profile. And such a boost would be welcomed by Palm's investors; in Palm's fiscal second quarter--its second quarter of selling webOS devices--Palm's smartphone sell-through fell 29 percent from the previous quarter and 4 percent year-over-year.
However, Palm's wares will face stiff competition among Verizon shoppers. The carrier's device lineup includes several high-profile BlackBerry devices from Research In Motion and two Android-based phones, the HTC Droid Eris and the Motorola Droid.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
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