Comments on article found at: blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/01/verizon-offers-deals-to-move-palm-phones/

Palm lost a lot of ground when it launched the Palm Pre last year and failed to followup on improving the device and customer perceptions.

To say Palm dropped the ball on the launching of the Palm Pre last year is an understatement.

If you recall, the marketing program that launched the Palm Pre was lackluster; it lacked any sizzle. Worse still, Palm did not even have a sufficient supply of the handsets on available during the initial launch. The Palm Pre was not exactly on par with the iPhone but close enough for Palm’s and Sprint Nextel’s purposes.

The Palm Pre hurt Sprint Nextel more than it helped Sprint Nextel. Investors may wish to blame Sprint Nextel but frankly, I blame Palm. The vendor did not do enough to promote the Pre. The final result was lackluster sales and customer complaints about handset performance.

For those loyal Sprint customers who decided to give the carrier’s new smart handset a shot, the payback was Palm’s new Pre Plus is not even available on the Sprint network. Palm launches the new handset on the Verizon Wireless network; a disastrous way to build customer loyalty on the Sprint Nextel network. Fortunately, for Sprint Nextel, the Palm Pre was just a small chapter in their recovery process.

The lucky carrier to benefit from Sprint’s mistake is: Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless gets the honor to launch the Pre Plus. However, maybe Verizon Wireless did not benefit. Verizon Wireless just threw Palm under the bus by dumping the Pre Plus on the market for about a third of its original price.

What will Verizon do now? Will Verizon Wireless pin its hopes for a new smartphone on the iPhone?

I am sure Sprint Nextel is not upset it missed out on launching the Palm Pre Plus. Sprint’s customers are a bit upset but in the end, the customers will thank Sprint Nextel.