Holding off on buying a Palm Pre until the smartphone hits Verizon? You may be waiting a long while. Word is that the wireless carrier has turned down the opportunity to support the first WebOS handset, a deal that was set to go into effect in January of next year.

This is all very backroom-type stuff. The Street is citing a number of anonymous sources who told the site that Verizon was less than enthusiastic about the Palm Pre's performance thus far. The other deal killer was Palm's unwillingness to stick VCast on the device, which, let's face it, sounds like the Verizon we all know and sometimes tolerate.

The addition of Verizon's propriety walled garden software wouldn't really mesh with the app store than Palm has been pushing on the device in