• June 1, 2009

Verizon Wireless will start selling the Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm 2 in the next six months, according to a Reuters report. That move would end the exclusive deal Sprint has to sell the smartphone which launches June 6.

"Over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre and a second-generation Storm on the Verizon Wireless network," said Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam. "You can expect to see us launch a steady stream of new devices from multiple vendors."

For its part, Sprint Thursday said its exclusive arrangement with Palm to offer the Pre runs through 2009. Separately, Palm confirmed that Pre customers will be able to synchronize the device with Apple's iTunes to download unprotected music and other media. Palm unveiled the "media sync" capability and other Pre features during a demonstration at the All Things D conference.

Apple has not yet commented publicly on the Pre's iTunes synching capability, but the company is known to aggressively fight any perceived infringement of its intellectual property. --Mark Walsh