Reuters:
Small crowds gathered at Sprint stores on Saturday for the official launch of Palm Inc's Pre, the much-hyped smartphone seen as Palm's best chance to claw back market share lost to rivals such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd's Blackberry.
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If anyone took the time to read the entire article and watch the video, I'd like to see what is so innovative about the Pre. Slide out keyboard? Already done. Touch screen? Already done. Short battery life? Already done. Apps? Already done.
And, it's unattractive, already done, by HP. So why the hype? I'm not even eager to see it, let alone buy one. And who are these alleged "tech gurus" who are extolling its virtues, mjb5406? LOL.
I guess Christschool and mjb5406 won't be getting together to have a beer and discuss technology, will they? LMFAO.
LMFAO.
Palm lost the market ages ago to the likes of... Windows Mobile (aka "PocketPC" before it was tethered to smartphnones).
The Pre (which sounds like a medical condition for men) looks like a pale, egg-shaped imitation. Scrambled eggs, anyone? Egg on Palm's face...
So whatever happened to the Blackberry Storm?
I just love it!!! I wouldn't trade it for any other phone. I switched from att for the pre. It took a very long time for my number to port over but now that it has I'm thrilled.
As for iphone killer, please, that is just so much media hype. There is plenty of room in the market for several iphone competitors, which is good for the consumer. The pre is great for both personal and buisness and there will be tons of apps for it. Web developers don't have to learn a new language for it so there is an army of programmers already capable. You can also run old palm apps on it if you have them, there are thousands of old palm apps.
Gosh! It sounds like it is just like having an iPhone! Tons of apps huh? I don't own an iPhone, but... if I were to become a buyer for one of these type devices I would sure not be looking at anything else, and certainly not a Palm Pre. Tons of apps. That's a good one!
it will go the way of the Zuni.
There are still Zunis living in New Mexico :)
Why don't companies just stop trying to be the *insert whatever Apple product here* killer, because it never works.
Every new smart phone that comes out claims to be the iPhone killer. I seriously doubt it. Every one I know who has an iPhone loves it. I have a Blackberry, I have no complaints. There's really nothing about this Palm that makes me say wow.
Just another toy for the rich.
Interesting post over at Cnet from a mobile app developer I thought I would share here concerning the WebOS used by Pre
I also think people will soon realize the limitations of Web OS. I develop tools for building apps for mobile devices and my theory on Web OS is that you can have some fluid apps that run well on the surface but I have yet to see powerful applications for mobile devices developed without objected oriented languages like C++ or Java. I don't think the apps on the Palm Pre are genuinely applications in the traditional sense. To me they are more browser based applications. I think the biggest thing you will notice about the Palm Pre that proves my theory is that you will not see any type of games that match the gaming experience you can have on a iPhone. I think Apple knew this when they tried to develop a Web OS system for the iPhone early on. Since Web OS is built using WebKit, which was originally developed by Apple, they long figured out the limitations. Steve Jobs knew the success of the iPhone had to be apps that were created with a SDK that incorporated elements more powerful than WebOS.
Seriously, what is with the hate? Fanboyism is juvenile.
?? Huh ??
What people forget, especially the rabid, blinders-on iPhone junkies, is that the first iPhone apps were ALL web based. Apple had NO intention of allowing 3rd parties to develop apps for it. Funny how the uninformed seem to take great glee in cr@pping on a Rev. 1 product when their own deity (the iPhone) was pretty much the same in its first iteration. Revisionist history is a b1tch, isn't it?
Considering you thought the iPhone was introduced to the market 4 years ago, I can understand how you could be mistaken about the first apps. They were not web based apps. Where did you get that from?
Pre will never beat iPhone. Three reasons why: 1) Proliferation of apps enabled by language cavailibility - on the iPhone, programs can be compiled from the most prevalent language C/C++ to a natively ran iPhone app. This means many existing, popular programs (especially games) are more easily ported to iPhone with minimal changes. This is why iPhone has so many apps and so many classics. The Pre OS is Java based and there isn't much out there worthwhile written in Java. 2) iPhone has a kickass 3D graphics chip. The Pre does not. 3) The biggest reason - the iPod Touch. This is the main thing so many highly paid corporatate heads overlook when strategizing the next 'iPhone Killer'. The iPhone's success is mostly attributed to the iPod Touch - the iPhone's entry level little brother. The iPod Touch is an iPhone, but without the phone features + 2 year contract. Both run the same apps. The iPod Touch has a much, much larger base - which translates to a much larger audience for apps & that's attractive to app developers. The iPhone basically rides the iPod Touch popularity wave. The Palm Pre has no 'entry level', contract less equivalent to appeal to developers & those on a budget.
"The iPhone's success is mostly attributed to the iPod Touch ... "
Uh ... I don't think so.
This might have been an interesting observation ... but for the fact that the iPhone predated the iPod touch. Check your chronology. I think you'll find that the iPhone was released with huge fanfare and enormous success, long before the iPod Touch was even announced.
There is a fourth reason - the Palm Pre cannot "sync" up with ANY data device, you cant pull data from your PC, Mac, netbook - nothing will sync with Pre, the Pre is an unmitigated failure. I have owned Palm products for years and until now i was loyal to Sprint b/c i stupidly believed that Palm would provide an answer to the iPhone. Instead, the Pre is an insult to Sprint customers. The strung us out for 2 years to make sure we wouldnt switch. Well my 10 year relationship with Sprint ended the day i waited an hour at a Sprint store to get the Pre, a phone that cant do anything.
Another uninformed iPhone zealot... better check the specs first:
"Palm synergy™ links contacts and calendars from Outlook®, Google and Facebook® "
I suggest that people read the user guide before posting unsubstantiated information:
http://www.sprint.com/cdma/assets/pdfs/phone_guides/palm/palm_pre_p100_ug.pdf
I'm a proud owner of an iPhone 3G. As many of you know, it's a great phone, but... it's great in spite of a few serious weaknesses. Apple is fixing many of these with the forthcoming firmware update. But the main area (I care about) where the Pre has the iPhone beat is with the multitasking. Even my old (Palm) Treo 600 had better multitasking capability than the iPhone.
You have to *sign off* IM to surf or answer a text. You have to stop loading a web page to change the music the iPod is playing. You can't surf (or anything else) while you listen to internet radio. IM currently has no backgound notification, making it essentially useless, and why didn't they include even a basic iChat app anyway? The examples go on & on.
I don't want a Pre. I want a multitasking iPhone. Let's hope the new "competition" will encourage Apple to fix what is, for me, the iPhone's biggest weakness.
Isn't happening in Rev 3.0 of the software... which is really odd, since the iPhone/iPod Touch operating system is based on OS X, which is a multitasking OS. Most experts believe it's because they have underpowered CPUs and not enough OS memory (remember that the 8GB, 16GB or, in iPhone 3GS, 32GB of flash is like a hard drive... the OS doesn't run programs in that space. It's just storage).
Actually, most "experts" believe that that lack of multitasking is the result of Apple's attempt to maintain what Apple considers a reliable and consistent user experience, with the added advantage of maintaining battery life. Most also believe that Apple will over time, begin to offer limited multitasking capability. With regards to the underpowered CPU's; well, we should know about that in about an hour. As well, look for some aggressive customization of the ARM processor and PowerVR graphics with the follow on iphone, something that Palm will have difficulty matching.
BTW, most "experts" also agree that it will be difficult to create a competitive gaming platform with the WebOS. I'll stick with John Gruber's spin on the iphone and Pre; he has a pretty good track record.
My G1 is better than both.
That G1 is a tank.
i think you mean 1G. because if you know anything about G1/linux+java you would not have made that statement.
The Palm Looks good but like all things there's better. As far as sprint, they have lousy customer service and if you go over you allocation, then, they disconnect you and force you to pay down your bill before its even due.
Thank goodness next month there is finally a company that is going to give true unlimited everything and for about $80/mo and $10 more unlimited 40 Countries. They will not cap your downloads and charge you $1.99 per kb for using over 5 mb of bandwidth, from your phone, on their unlimited plan.
They already won the best product of 2009 at the CTIA convention "Laptop Mag". Best of all they allow you to refer your friends and the pay you $10 per month per referral. Goodbye Big three you are finally getting some consumer friendly competition.
Actually I left At&t for Sprint and they are really pretty good as far as customer service goes. I have had a couple bumps which they resolved pretty quick. I would try them out. I have been there 2.5 years now. I just got the Pre and it's an amazing phone...light as a feather and smaller than an iphone.
I was on Sprint for long time before I got my iPhone and went to AT&T. It has been my experience that customer service in a Sprint Store was mostly not great just so so, but occasionally it was excellent, and occasionally it was horrid. Customer service when I had to call or send email was almost always good. I have had my iPhone since last autumn, but I have not yet had any reason for AT&T tech support so I can not comment on that.
Sprint cell service was great, except in some very rural areas. However, I can say the same thing about AT&T. Last week I had cell service in Yosemite Valley, but no 3G just Edge.
Multitasking? The current iPhone has it somewhat, but it isn't meant to replace my Mac where I may have Illustrator, PhotoShop, and InDesign running at the same time. On my iPhone if I am using an app and call or text comes in I get notified.
The keyboard? Like any new keyboard it takes practice but I can zip along on my iPhone. I like the flexibility of the virtual keyboard, I can foresee Apple introducing them for Macs.
As to the Pre being an iPhone killer, that remains to be seen. It depends on what happens with the iPhone 3. I am looking forward to trying one out, maybe I will do that today.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !! That's funny. I didn't even known Palm still existed. Too little, too late. The iPhone is way too established now, and when 3.0 comes out in a week, all the heretofore missing features like cut and paste will be included. It's Palm that is dead.
How about a decent network for the IPhone. AT&T sucks! I have to walk outside and orient myself due north to use my IPhone, and I live way out in the boonies of Silicon Valley in CA. My Verizon-cheapo phone works everywhere.
I have absolutely no issues, even when I'm in Silicon Valley on business. The iPhone is so versatile I almost forget that it's a phone. Where AT&T sucks is in their pricing, and for me, not in their network. I travel all over the country and have had zero issues on call drops or bad connections. None.
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First Posted: 06- 6-09 12:50 PM | Updated: 07- 7-09 05:12 AM