Verizon adding Android, Palm Pre and LTE, oh my!
Just because every other carrier has had major announcements recently, don’t think for a minute that Verizon has just been sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
It seems that Verizon has been busy lately, it has just been quiet about what exactly it is they are working on. For some reason all of that has changed and now the flood gates are wide open with all sorts of news as to what expect from the carrier over the next few years.
First up is news that if you want a Palm Pre, but have no desire to work with Sprint, your wait isn’t going to be a long one. According to Reuters, Verizon should have the hot new handheld by the end of the year. Verizon’s Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said at a conference recently that he expected to have the Palm Pre on his network in ”six months or so,” which lines up with the rumors that the Sprint exclusivity for the device was a limited one.
He also went to state that they were expecting a second version of the BlackBerry Storm in the near future, as well as a new model known as Tour. They are also expecting to get their first device running the Google OS known as Android, as well as new phones from Motorola, so it looks like your choice for which handset to get next from Verizon just got a bit more difficult.
After the excitement of new handsets comes the fun of what will power them. According to the Wall Street Joural, Mr. McAdam says that just as AT&T finishes its HSPA 7.2 3G rollout in 2011, Verizon will be launching its LTE 4G network in 210 markets in 2012. Which markets will be covered, nor when exactly in 2012 it would happen, was disclosed, but it does sound like AT&T will be having to play catch up.
Verizon sits comfortably in the number one carrier position in the United States currently, and it doesn’t sound like they have plans to relinquish that roll any time soon.
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