It is now evident that Verizon will be offering the Pre at the start of next year. Quoting the usual person familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Verizon will introduce the Pre to its network in January, as Sprint will be sitting on an exclusivity contract for the remainder of 2009.
There was a period of uncertainty regarding the length of Sprint's agreement after Verizon recently claimed it would be selling the Pre in about six months. Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse quickly countered the competitor's statement by calling it inaccurate and suggesting that Verizon check its facts.
The Pre has seen moderate success thus far. While its sales can't compete with the iPhone's launch, Palm's latest handset has broken Sprint's debut phone sales records. There are no official numbers to go by, but as of a few days ago analysts estimated shipments between 50,000 and 100,000. Palm's blog reports that more than 150,000 apps were downloaded on first day.
I can only hope that by the January launch, any major hardware kinks will be sorted out.