Full FeedVerizon’s Palm Pre - iPhone’s Achilles’ heel?
It is on. In their quarterly announcement today, Verizon offered up this gem: “early next year” the Palm Pre will be on their network. Forget the lame Palm Pre ads. The Palm Pre is headed to Verizon-land and may change the phone landscape as we know it.
Palm has taken some hits for taking so long to get a SDK to developers. More apps is a common review criticism and perhaps one of the only real tasks left to deal with. Verizon’s customer base is hungry for a phone that can beat the iPhone. The Palm Pre could be what they all have been waiting for.
The Pre on Verizon will solve the lack of apps pretty quickly I’d imagine. Devs follow the money and the money is in a large customer base. More apps make the phone even more attractive to potential customers and the cycle feeds itself as long as Palm keeps putting new food into the stream.
AT&T has also been rumored to have a go at the Pre; they’ve apparently done well with the Palm Centro. The trifecta of carriers with the Pre would make Apple wince, for sure. The power of the three biggest carriers selling a similar platform would be a significant draw to developers, much like the draw of the coming Android phones to, well, everyone.
The webOS, iPhone OS, and Android battle is shaping up to be a fantastic one. I, for one, am thrilled to be watching it ringside.
Source: [I4U]
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Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
I’ve owned my Palm Pre since launch and absolutely love it. I multi-task on it literally like on a computer. Example: I was on a road-trip with my boss (an iPhone user)... I had GPS navigation and Pandora playing through the car speakers, while also tracking my wife’s flight to Puerto Rico, texting my colleague about an upcoming presentation that I was viewing on my phone… how many tasks was that, five? And I was doing them ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Needless to say, my boss was openly impressed. This is the future of mobile computing. And it’s here now. Period.
Unfortunately for Sprint, I think they get a lot of undeserved bad rap. I’ve had them for years in 4 different cities and have never had a problem with them. Their rates are also quite favorable to AT&T and Verizon, all while throwing in GPS navigation into all plans. Meanwhile, customer service ratings have improved over the last year, and 3rd party tests have shown data speeds to be faster with Sprint.
Hopefully Verizon’s adoption of the Palm Pre will bring in many much-needed customers to Palm. I want this company to do well.
on July 27, 2009 at 05:09 PM - LINKI am one of the *very* few who has actually returned his iPhone 3GS in order to buy a Palm Pre, so I think I have a rather unique perspective here. I’ve been a die-hard iPhone fan since it first launched in 2007… I waited in line for the original, I waited in line for the 3G, and I waited yet again (much shorter line this time) for the 3GS. After playing with my shiny new 3GS for a while, it dawned on me… Apple wasn’t innovating. Cut and paste, universal search, and video recording after TWO YEARS of customers (like me!) begging for it? Watching iPhone commercials bragging about these features as though Apple had invented them put a sour taste in my mouth.
The Palm Pre is not without its problems….... top on my list are poor battery (thank God it’s replaceable!) and very few apps…..... But despite these issues, the Palm Pre is quite possibly the best phone I’ve ever owned. Multitasking is an must-have feature for all true smartphones. It’s actually a great productivity device, and I love having a real keyboard again (it’s small… you get used to it). I miss my apps, but from what I’m reading developers are excited to write apps for the Pre so this will be a non-issue one day
I actually hated AT&T with a white hot passion these past 3 years (another reason for leaving!)... in my view, Verizon or Sprint are both much better alternatives.
on July 27, 2009 at 05:29 PM - LINKThe Pre may do OK, but I think the overall picture would be more WebOS related. It’ll probably do about as well as Windows Mobile and Android. As more WebOS form factors come to market, it’ll be even less about the Pre. It’ll find a market, but it ain’t killin’ no iPhone :)
Seriously, do you think you’ll ever see a JBL GSM-shielded speaker system with a Pre-docking port at your local Best Buy? I just bought one, choosing from at least a dozen or so models on display, at the Best Buy near me. As the operating system becomes diluted into different form factors, the accessory market will be fragmentmented—hooking up to stereos an speakers will involve cables, not docking ports :(
While devices may sell enough to keep the companies afloat, the standard has been established—it’s not, nor will it ever be, the Palm Pre ;)
on July 27, 2009 at 05:42 PM - LINKI hear you guys.
@Benji, I actually went back to see if the Verizon guy said a webOS phone instead of Pre. But no, the dude said Pre. Pre 2? Pre S? I agree, Palm can start to spin off iterations to please both keyboard needy and touchscreen sporto-s. webOS is the bigger danger.
@Dan and Vara, thanks for the input on how the Pre is working for you. It is good to hear about the upside of Palm doing bold (if not desperate) things.
on July 27, 2009 at 07:27 PM - LINK...which doesn’t really change the fact that your slow-news-day prophecy regarding the Pre having any sort of effect on the iPhone as a total non-story ;)
on July 27, 2009 at 11:40 PM - LINKI want the palm pre badly after reading and searching for a total of 6hours but im an Iphone user and so is my mom dad and brother we hav a family plan that makes things cheaper and i want the palm MORE than the iphone i also want to have clear calls. i have a verizon account and i would love to go ahead and purchase a sprint pre but it costs over 1600 dollars to get it should i stay with my iphone and wait for the verizon version? or attempt to get it now? and btw when is the exact date the palm pre will be out on verison? my dad said i could get the chance of one if my phone contract is over thanks!
on August 26, 2009 at 03:01 PM - LINK