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The Palm Pre is certainly getting its share of attention lately, just yesterday we saw the official announcement of the GSM version and now rumor has it the Verizon has decided against offering it to their customers.  That, and Amazon has lowered the price making it just a little more affordable for those looking to make the move to Sprint.

To begin with, the news looks bleak for any Verizon Wireless customer that was holding out hope of seeing a new smartphone because if we can believe this latest rumor then we can assume that the Palm Pre will never be available.  According to the report coming from TheStreet:

“The Pre, Palm’s premier touch-screen smartphone, which has been an exclusive offering this year at Sprint, had been scheduled to arrive at Verizon in January. But people close to the discussions say Verizon has decided not to support the Pre.”

According to the report, Verizon has decided to take a pass due to the lack of overall sales on the Palm Pre.  Additionally, it was suggested that the VCast service that Verizon wants will end up being in conflict with the App Market.  As you would expect, a Verizon rep declined to comment.  Bottom line, it does not look good for any Verizon customer that was hoping to get a decent smartphone.

Moving on though we have a little bit of good news in regards to the Palm Pre price.  It seems Amazon has decided it would sell better at a lower price and have begun to offer it for $99.99.  Of course, that price does require you to sign a two-year agreement, but that would be the same if you purchased directly from Sprint.

More and more it seems that Amazon is becoming a good alternative for picking up phones and similar gadgets.  Personally, I recently picked up a Sprint MiFi for just $0.01 and did not have to deal with any rebates, which is nice because had I went directly to Sprint I would have been expected to pay $150.00 and then wait for a $50 mail-in-rebate.

Read [TheStreet.com] and [Amazon] Via [everything pre]