As mentioned earlier, Dan Hesse was adamant that Sprint would have Pre exclusivity for more than six months. Well, I just spoke again with “John”, my very helpful Sprint employee, and it didn’t even take drastic measures like waterboarding or sleep deprivation for him to spill the beans on the length of exclusivity.

According to “John” the Friendly Neighborhood Sprint Store Employee, the magic number is a nine month exclusivity period, then Verizon is in the game to carry the Pre as well. What about AT&T? No mention of them. It’s likely that AT&T will carry a different Palm webOS device, like the Palm Eos (Pixie?), a GSM phone with full QWERTY keyboard on the front (much like the Treo Pro). If you are with Verizon, it appears you have a 9-month wait until the Pre is born on that carrier. If you are with AT&T, who really knows for sure? You may not get a Pre at all but have the Palm Eos in your future. Or, you can just head over to Sprint now and pony up the dough for a shiny new Pre. What will YOU do?