Q: Is the Palm Pre making a dent into the iPhone market?
A: Aaah... It's-it's doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it's almost not... it's like comparing someone to Michael Jordan.

Well, not really, Dan. It is exactly the same category. It's just that Apple owns the category. So yes, you are right that the iPhone is like Michael Jordan, but the Palm Pre plays in the NBA too. In any case, don't give up so soon. We—the consumers—need the battle so Apple doesn't get so frigging lazy.

Verizon had previously noted that the Pre (along with RIM's BlackBerry Storm 2) would be hitting Verizon in "around six months or so." Sprint was quick to shoot that down, stating that they would definitely have the exclusive rights to the Pre at least through 2009. That evidently wasn't clear enough; if the Pre hits Verizon in January (seven months from now), that's still a short enough timeframe that Verizon users would likely just wait instead of switching carriers to Sprint.

Now, in an effort to shoot down this kind of patience, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse mentioned in an interview that Verizon's timetable is wrong: "They need to check their facts," he said at a press interview. "That just is not the case. Both Palm and Sprint have agreed not to discuss the length of the exclusivity deal. But I can tell you it's not six months."

So all we know at this point is that the Pre and Sprint are locked together through 2009, and probably into 2010, though if we had to guess, we'd say not very far. If this was a year-long deal, they'd be talking it up, so our guess is that we'll be seeing the Pre on Verizon and AT&T in the first couple months of 2010. But that's just our guess. [CNET]

Watchers talking to the WSJ said Dan Hesse's commercials were pretty dull. Viewers thought one commercial, filmed in the back of a New York City taxi, was actually Hesse in a pricey limo, and CEOs enjoying their wealth is kind of frowned upon these days.

But given the choice, I'd get rid of that Verizon guy first. He doesn't talk much, but neither do many perverted sexual fetishists. Am I saying he's definitely a perverted sexual fetishist? Of course not. But I've never seen any proof that he's not, and I don't like the way he looks at me. [WSJ CNET]