SlashGear

Prepare for more Palm Pre carrier confusion, as the Wall Street Journal reports that their source tips a Pre launch on Verizon Wireless come January 2010.  The leak comes mere days after Sprint CEO Dan Hesse suggested that rival Verizon may like to “check its facts” over the length of the Pre exclusivity deal Sprint has signed with Palm.

That retort came after Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam’s well-publicized suggestion that handsets “like the Palm Pre” would be showing up on their shelves in the next six months.  The comment led to speculation that Palm and Sprint had arranged a six month exclusivity deal that would likely run up until the end of 2009.

The WSJ doesn’t name its source, only claim it is a “person familiar with the situation”.  As we pointed out on Friday, Hesse’s comments did not lay out exactly the length of the sole-provider agreement, nor did it confirm or deny that it was any longer or indeed shorter than six months.  Sales of the Pre over its launch weekend set new records for Sprint, but the freshly-announced iPhone 3G S and the ongoing talk of a Verizon version may dampen enthusiasm over the rest of 2009.

[via Gear Diary]