Full FeedBlogger fight: Respond to the Pre or face becoming Motorola, Apple
Our sister site’s Jake Gaeke has been taking some rough shots over at Appletell for his post: Apple can do whatever the hell they want. In his post, Jake laid out some thoughtful (if not fanboy-istic) ideas on why the iPhone has nothing to worry about. However, I think Jake is dead wrong.
If you cut through Jake’s admitted lust for the iPhone, you get to his main thrust: yes, the Pre looks good on paper, but it is “no Apple.” And by “no Apple,” he means the relationship he shares with the company from Cupertino, the relationship many of us iPod/iPhone users have with Apple.
They say that love is blinding and I think Jake’s got some of that. I can one up Jake by having gotten to hold the Pre and was in the crowd at the announcement. This is the first phone that will actually challenge the iPhone. Currently, the market is littered with immediately forgettable LGs and Samsungs that bring nothing to the table besides a me-too touchscreen. Can you tell I am excited about the Pre?
Yes, I am. And for good reason. This phone melds the design chops and the software skills that are on par with the iPhone. Many of whom I’ve talked to about the phone go beyond that and say it is above the iPhone. We’ve all only played with show prototypes and while the proof is in the pudding; let’s assume the real thing will be similar.
The specs of the Pre beat the iPhone hands down on paper. Jake makes the strong point that the Pre lacks the App store, for which I’ve been quoted as saying makes up as much as 1/2 of the iPhone experience, if not more. And it is a good point, but there were a lot of Palm developers that are rooting for Palm perhaps just as much as I am. I would bet we’ll see lots of interest from them, not just eying the Pre, but also the next generation Centro that will run WebOS and be able to potentially take advantage of the apps. I’d argue Palm’s got as many good developer relationships as Apple, but Palm has something even better.
And mass appeal is something Apple isn’t going to chase in the phone market, according to their last investor call. “They’ll let someone else chase” that segment of the market. With WebOS on their top of the line Pre but also on the entry level Centro, developers can leverage a much broader audience. And ecosystem like that will thrive in today’s market. Apple has to pay attention to that.
Another thing Palm has is phones on different carriers. Apple’s deal will continue for another 3 years at best, Palm’s could be only six months. Imagine the power of a Verizon Pre, an AT&T Pre in addition to the Sprint Pre. Heck, imagine if Apple didn’t have the exclusive. Mass appeal means more than just a cheap phone, it means carrier choices.
Apple’s got to pay attention to the Pre. That is the nature of business. Surely Jake isn’t suggesting Apple ignore the market and rest on its laurels ala Motorola? Of course not, he knows Apple is probably readying something we didn’t even see coming that will one up the Pre, perhaps.
And that is why Palm put its drop dead launch date of the Pre before June’s WWDC. Palm will use the Pre’s on-paper advantage to sway users that it is the next big thing. Palm clearly hopes to steal some thunder from Apple’s next release.
One thing that amazed me about CES this year and probably the biggest thing I got out of it, was everyone is rooting for Palm. Bloggers, manufacturers, PR folks, taxi cab drivers, heck even the waiters clearing my half-eaten finger sandwiches—everyone is rooting for Palm to pull this off. People love the underdog.
That said, I’ve got a brand-spanking-new iPhone in my pocket right now. Am I willing to jump to Sprint? Nope. But with a six-month potential exclusive, a Pre for all carriers could be awfully interesting.
What do you think?
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Well, I certainly hope you’re right, JG. The more competition Apple gets, the better the iPhone will become. Apple certainly hasn’t played all its cards yet, and a successful Pre will force them to play their hand sooner than they otherwise would have.
And as you and Jake both hinted, you know Apple’s not just sitting around waiting to see what’s going to happen. From the moment the 3G hit, you know they’ve been hard at work on the next iteration. By the time the Pre finally hits, who knows what Apple will be ready to announce?
on February 25, 2009 at 09:25 PM - LINKPersonally, I hope Palm get’s the Pre right from the start. It’s the first Palm product that peaked my interest in a long time. Not enough to switch to Sprint since there is a half-mile radius Sprint “roaming” area around my home. But they have to fight a lot of political and technological mistakes in their past plus produce something much more reliable than many of their products. That said, I’m still using a palmOS Treo because it still works best in my daily usage, but rooting for the Pre.
on February 26, 2009 at 08:36 AM - LINKI agree with Kirk, the more competition there is the better the product.
Just a few words for you to ponder - why wasn’t the analyst allowed to handle if the Pre is ready for prime time.
Anyway may the best product wins in these very difficult times.
on February 26, 2009 at 12:02 PM - LINKWell, it’s hard to compare the Pre with the iPhone since it’s not even out yet, and my gut tells me that Apple already knows enough about it since Rubenstein used to be at Apple and is the brains behind the Pre, and i’m sure that Ruby still talks to the same people who talk to people at Apple. Being that it’s a Sprint exclusive will hurt it just like being an AT&T exclusive has hurt the Iphone, badly. I know this being an AT&T customer for 15 years (I’m a glutton for punishment). I do hope that the Pre does well since I used to love Palm until the Handspring spinoff. I bought a 650 and it was a nightmare. They replaced it 4 times with other broken Treos that they called “refurbished”. I gave up and bought a Nokia, but still loved the PalmOS. Then they canned it and went Windows and they were dead to me.
If Palm can pull it off, it would be great to have some real competition. The real test will be how the phone really works in the wild, and if they can also do an App store. They used to have some neat programs with the PalmOS, but I don’t know if the developers are still peeved at them for killing (or selling off) the OS.
I Just hope they don’t make something as crappy as the first Android phone.
on February 26, 2009 at 12:12 PM - LINKThe Pre is nice, no doubt. But it is going to need something to set it apart from the rest of the fancy new handsets. It’s a solid product on paper, but how is a production model going to be. How much customer support is Palm going to offer users if they run into problems. I can’t believe that the new webOS is going to be without it’s share of teething problems.
The Pre is being compared to the present iPhone, but how well will it sell if Apple introduces an updated model that has very powerful processors or a revolutionary battery. With Apple being able to design it’s own chips using P.A. Semi custom chips, you can’t tell what Apple might have in store for competitors. Just as Palm took a leap forward with the Pre, Apple could do the same thing with the iPhone 3.0.
I wonder why multi-tasking is so necessary for users. I would figure most users wouldn’t even know if their handsets had it or not. I know my first Macs didn’t have it and I found it annoying not to be able to work while printing. But eventually Multifinder fixed that and then later the Mac got true multi-tasking. I’d need to know the specifics before I’d be crying about not getting multi-tasking on the iPhone. I’m guessing Apple isn’t using it because of reasons of stability or battery usage, but I certainly think they know what they’re doing.
on February 26, 2009 at 12:22 PM - LINKHey AdamC, I got to handle the Pre briefly and the rep did just about anything we requested to be shown, so I am really not sure why they wouldn’t give us hands off time with it.
I suspect the early build had some kind of flaw, but darned if I couldn’t figure it out.
Competition is a good thing, boys. Finally, I think the iPhone is actually going to get some. Can you image if Apple has held on to cut and paste just because there was nothing to challenge them, so why give it away? Just sayin.
on February 26, 2009 at 03:16 PM - LINKWhy multi-tasking? Talk to PalmOS users. Push email is near impossible without it. Chatteremail pushed the limit of the PalmOS with background email fetching, but even that was a bit clunky, and it would get the palm into a funky state which needing a reboot too often.
So, if you want to receive notifications from RSS, or twitter, etc. in the background, you need to be able to multi-task. Otherwise it means that you have to continually switch between applications to retrieve them individually.
That said, I’m sure that Apple is actually using multi-tasking already, but they just haven’t opened it up to developers. The main reason is that background processing can sap the life out of your battery quick unless it is properly throttled.
on March 1, 2009 at 09:19 AM - LINK