First Palm Pre Review Emerges As Sprint Flashes Exclusivity Clause

Sprint has reaffirmed the fact that it has an exclusivity distribution contract with Palm over its forthcoming Pre smartphone which is set to debut early next month.

A spokesman for Sprint told Dow Jones's Smartmoney that the mobile network carrier would "have the Pre through 2009". The statement came afte Lowell McAdam, Verizon's Chief Executive,  declared at Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital Conference that the network would get the Pre and a "cousin" device.

No other smartphone has generated this level of excitement and coverage ever since the iPhone was released and Sprint is betting on the Pre to revive its sales and stop it hemorrhaging customers.

Pre stocks are likely to last only for a few weeks, if not a few days, and the manufacturer's shares have been going up significantly getting 18 percent since last week to reach $12.20. So for now at least, things seems to be getting better and better for Palm.

Boy Genius Report has also published the first part of its Palm Pre Review with a significant amount of close-up photos and a profusion of details covering the main aspects of the smartphone. There were a few misses - like the random hardware reset the Pre initiated which wiped out all data on the test product (ed: could be beta OS) or the slightly awkward keyboard that left the reviewer wanting for bigger keys.

Overall though, BGR acknowledges the fact that Palm has masterfully orchestrated the rise of the Pre. It has, in BGR's words "converted tons of people into raging Pre fanboys before they could even see the phone in person!"

and join more than 1450 other followers.