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May 29, 2009

Late yesterday, Verizon Wireless said it will start offering cell phones based on Google’s Android operating system in the very near future.

T-Mobile is currently the only U.S. wireless service provider that has introduced an Android-based phone.

Several phone makers are now running their products on Android, including Samsung Electronics and Motorola.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said "conspiracy theorists had touted in the past that we would never do anything with Google, but we have had some very good dialogue with them. In fact, we like what we see and we will be bringing Android smartphones and MIDs (mobile Internet devices) to the marketplace in the very near future."

Verizon Wireless' CEO also said that the U.S.' largest cellular carrier will carry the Pre, an eagerly awaited new smartphone from Palm. The Pre is expected to be offered by Verizon in around November or December, although no specific date was offered.

But some say McAdam may have misspoken. Sprint Nextel spokesman James Fisher said Sprint will be the exclusive wireless carrier for the Pre at least until the end of 2009.

It was the first time Sprint confirmed the minimum length of the exclusivity period.

The Pre goes officially on sale Saturday in two weeks, and is seen as a chance for Palm to "envigorate" a line that has been losing out to Apple’s iPhone and BlackBerrys. The phone features a touch screen, a slide-out keyboard and a new operating system, WebOS.

Sprint, which has been losing subscribers, also needs a more popular device that will really go a long way in regaining its lost market share.

McAdam even went as far as complimenting Motorola, which is struggling to turn around seriously shrinking phone sales as of late.

He added that Verizon Wireless will launch within six months a previously unknown Palm device, a cousin to the Pre, but didn't offer more details. Palm has said it is making WebOS the basis for an entire new line.

"You'll definetely see Motorola back into our portfolio real soon. We feel very good about the progress that the phone maker has made so far," McAdam said.

Verizon Wireless is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications of New York.

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Source: Verizon Wireless.