AT&T to grab the Pre after Sprint exclusivity

By now, we know that Sprint has a one year exclusive agreement with Palm, meaning they will be the only company to carry the highly anticipated smartphone for the first year. After that, Palm plans to allow pretty much any carrier retail the Pre, but until now, no company has actually said they would be selling the Pre after the exclusive period.

Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, of AT&T, claimed at the D7 conference that he sees AT&T selling the Pre. Of course, it is not an official confirmation, but since he is the Chief Executive of AT&T, there is good reason to believe AT&T will be carrying the Pre. This proposes an interesting problem for Sprint. If AT&T users want to get off their iPhone contract and try out the Pre, they may wait a year until AT&T starts selling the Pre, and then ink a brand new contract. Either way, Sprint needs to build up the hype as much as possible, and make sure the Pre lives up to the expectations, otherwise their launch will not be very successful, and AT&T’s launch of the Pre may not bode well either.

As we get closer to the release date of June 6, things are beginning to heat up even more. Stay tuned for all the latest Pre news.

Via [WSJ]