The Pre hasn’t even hit shelves yet, and already people are talking about Sprint’s exclusivity agreement in the US expiring.  Verizon turned heads yesterday when they bluntly revealed that they have their eye on offering the new Palm smartphone too; blunt enough to prompt a similarly terse retort from Sprint’s spokesperson.

“We have the Pre through 2009″ said spokesman James Fisher, managing to leave us still confused as to the handset’s availability come 2010.  Verizon’s CEO said that “over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre”, a timescale that could certainly tally if Sprint mean their exclusivity ends at the tail of 2009.

Verizon also suggested that they were getting a “cousin” device of the Pre, which many have taken to assume refers to the Palm Eos.  That’s believed to be hitting AT&T in the second half of 2009.