Palm Of Their Hands

Although Pre isn’t trying to compete with Apple’s iPhone, it’s the handset’s applications that will make it a major player

By all accounts, Palm’s new Pre smart phone is elegant and powerful. On sale for just a few weeks, it has a crisp touch screen, a pull-out keyboard aimed at e-mail devotees and a new operating system that can manage multiple applications at the same time.

But in a world crowded with iPhones, BlackBerrys and others , success for the Pre — and possibly the survival of Palm itself — is going to take a lot more than a well designed device.

These days, it is all about the apps.

Industry experts and programmers say that the company needs to cultivate a system of developers eager to write and publish small, useful programs, or applications, for the Pre and its core software, WebOS. Palm also needs to provide an easy way for Pre users to download, pay for and install those apps, similar to Apple’s App Store.

So far, Palm is off to a slow start. Palm’s App Catalog has just a few dozen apps, even as Apple boasts that iPhone users can download 50000 that do everything from receiving baseball videocasts to unlocking a rental car.

The payment system for the Palm app store — important if the company wants to charge for certain programs — is still under construction. And most crucially, Palm has yet to open its software development kit, the main set of tools needed to write apps, to most of the thousands of developers who have expressed an interest in creating products for the Pre.

As a result, some developers are wary of the new platform, said Ben Gottlieb, the president of Stand Alone, which has been creating fitness, game and calendar applications for Palm devices since 1995, but is focusing its new development efforts on the iPhone.

“The WebOS looks like a great comeback, but there’s a little bit of trepidation there,” Gottlieb said. “Most Palm OS developers I know have moved over to the iPhone. A lot of us feel abandoned as the platform was neglected for so many years.”

The competition is not standing still. Apple recently upgraded the iPhone’s software and began selling a new, faster model. Research in Motion is supposed to unveil several new BlackBerrys this year, including an update to Storm, its touch-screen device.

HTC and Motorola are also expected to introduce phones that use Google’s Android operating system.

The stakes are high for Palm, which once dominated the market with its now-ageing Treo handsets and even had a vast constellation of developers who wrote apps for the Treo’s Palm OS operating system. Since 2007, the company has been steadily losing in the US to Apple, RIM and HTC, according to data from Nielsen Mobile, a research firm that tracks the wireless industry.

If consumers become enchanted with the Pre, Palm could regain a significant share of the smart phone market, said Paul Coster, an analyst with JPMorgan who follows the company.

On the flip side, “if the Pre and WebOS fail, then the company is in trouble,” said Jonathan Goldberg, from Deutsche Bank.

Coster estimates that Palm has shipped close to 180000 devices in the two weeks since the product first went on sale and could reach as many as 2.5 million in the fiscal year ending in May 2010. But that would not be enough to make the company profitable, he said.

Palm is urging customers and developers to be patient.

“We’ve never really said that we’re in a race with Apple,” said Derick Mains, a spokesperson for the company. Rather than compete with Apple on the volume of applications, “we’re building a catalogue of quality apps in the store,” Mains said.

It is not unusual for software programs to lag behind the release of a new piece of hardware. Apple, for example, did not have an app store or allow third-party developers to write for its platform until nearly a year after the original iPhone went on sale in June 2007.

The concern for Palm is that competition for developers’ attention is much more intense now.

For Palm to thrive, the company will have to convince developers that writing WebOS applications will be lucrative, said Ken Dulaney, a mobile industry number cruncher with the research firm, Gartner.

Palm is still working on the Pre’s software development kit, which is used to build applications. The company said the tools would not be widely available until the end of the (US) summer. While they have granted hundreds of developers access to an early version of the kit, there are thousands of other eager programmers who cannot even begin writing products for Pre.

Some developers who were granted early access to Palm’s new operating system said it was worth the wait. “We find it’s the easiest one to develop for,” said Christian Sepulveda of Pivotal Labs. “It allows for a richer experience, like having a pop-up menu and background processing, which is helpful.”

Sepulveda’s company developed four of the first programs available for download through Palm’s app store, including an item for Twitter called Tweed.

Greg Stevenson, a long-term Treo user who plans to write programs on WebOS, sees the nascent platform as an advantage. “I’d rather be a big fish in a smaller pond than one app in a catalog of 50000,” said Stevenson, who is helping organise a gathering of Pre enthusiasts called PreDevCamp in August.

Palm said building the app store and writing the developer tools is a huge undertaking, and the company would rather do things right than too quickly.

“We’re busy working on scaling the infrastructure. As we have the capacity to ramp up access, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” said Pam Deziel, vice president for developer relations at Palm. “The focus for us is putting our heads down and delivering.”

article source: http://www.thetimes.co.za/Entertainment/Article.aspx?id=1029030

NFL Mobile Live Coming to Palm Pre August 1st

A Sprint support page indicates that NFL Mobile Live will be coming to the Palm Pre on August 1st. We just heard that we should be able to expect webOS 1.1 within a month, but we didn't know if it would come with more apps. We can't say for sure that NFL Mobile Live will come with 1.1, but it seems like a solid guess to us. In the comments on that 1.1 post, DSulls points us to a Sprint Support site about NFL Mobile live for the Palm Pre, indicating some excellent news:

NFL Mobile Live will be delivered via an OTA Update

It will be pre-loaded on all Palm Pre phones on August 1st

Similar to Sprint's NASCAR app, NFL mobile live allows you to get live audio of every regular season game, Live video of certain NFL Network games, and live NFL Network video 24/7. Not to mention "Red Zone Alerts" to let you know when a team is likely to score. Since Sprint requires an Everything Data plan, there won't be any additional charge for the app.

article source: http://www.precentral.net/nfl-mobile-live-coming-palm-pre-august-1st

Palm Pre information Sources

How can we help you?

Looking for information about the Pre? Here are some suggestions to help you get the best and speediest responses.

Have a question about -- or a problem with -- your Pre? The answer may already be on our support forums. If it isn’t, our moderators can often help you find a resolution. (There are specific forums for hardware, software, and webOS, as well as specific topics like Palm Synergy.)
Got an idea for a feature you’d like to see? We’re all ears -- drop us a note in our virtual suggestion box.

Looking to develop applications for the Pre? The Palm Developer Network is the place to go with questions about the Mojo SDK or other under-the-webOS-hood topics.

Curious about Pre? Catch a guided tour and get even more details here.

Wondering what other people are thinking about? Start a discussion board on Palm’s Facebook page. (You’ll also find links to many independent Palm community sites on the blog roll on your right.)

Here are some suggestions from Sprint: Need help with questions about your device or rate plan? Visit www.sprint.com/support for support with questions about your account, technical questions or information about Sprint's rate plans and services. You can also find tutorials, user guides and videos specific to the Pre at www.sprint.com/learn. Sprint also offers an online community of wireless users at http://www.buzzaboutwireless.com/ who can provide support for questions about Palm Pre.

Just want to tell us how much you love us? Awwww ….

(And of course, if you’re already a Pre owner, the Help app is as close as your Launcher.)

article source: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2009/06/how-can-we-help-you-.html

Palm Pre to Launch in Europe with O2 and Movistar

Palm Pre will arrive in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain on local Telefónica networks in those countries. Scheduled to be available in time for the holidays, Pre will be offered in the UK, Ireland and Germany on Telefónica's O2 network, and in Spain on Telefónica's Movistar network. You can read more about the announcement here.
Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pre and be notified when it's available can register at:
UK and Ireland: http://www.palm.com/uk-pre-notify
Germany: http://www.palm.com/de-pre-notify
Spain: http://www.palm.com/es-pre-notify

source: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2009/07/palm-pre-to-launch-in-europe-with-o2-and-movistar.html

Palm Pre users complain about lack of virtual keyboard

The recent Strategy Analytics Wireless Device Lab benchmark report, "Mobile Device User Evaluation: Palm Pre," evaluates the recently launched Palm Pre across a number of features.

The Palm Pre performed well for most tasks, while users were impressed by the ‘activity card’ style user interface. Palm Synergy, which allows users to integrate multiple calendar and contact accounts, was seen to be useful, as long as users could choose which accounts they add.

"The lack of an on-screen virtual keyboard was a concern for many participants," according to Paul Brown, Senior Analyst in the Strategy Analytics User Experience Practice. "Although users liked having a physical QWERTY keyboard, they did not want to have to slide it out every time they wanted to type something".

Headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, S. Korea and China, Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides timely and actionable market intelligence focused on opportunities and disruptive forces in the areas of Automotive Electronics and Entertainment, Broadband Connected Home, Mobile & Wireless Intelligent Systems and Virtual Worlds.

Owners of wannabe iPhones have worse problems than ill-conceived, poorly-implemented, perpetually-stuck-in-portrait-mode, antique mechanical keyboards on devices that supposedly offer landscape viewing. For one not-so-minor example: WTF are the apps?

Pre sufferers, don't hold your breath for critical mass. It isn't coming.

As for keyboards, Daring Fireball's John Gruber said it best:A hardware keyboard is a significant selling point for only one group of customers: those who already own a phone with a hardware keyboard, and that group is a niche. A nice niche, but a niche nonetheless.

Here’s why. Most normal people have yet to buy their first smartphone. That’s why the stakes are so high — it’s a wide open market frontier, but it won’t remain that way for long. Normal people aren’t planning to do much typing on their new smartphones, and they’re probably right. Any smartphone QWERTY keyboard, software or hardware, is going to be better than what most people are used to, which is pecking things out on a phone with a 0-9 numeric keypad.

I type far better on my iPhone than I expected I’d be able to, and that seems to be true for everyone I know who owns one. The only people who struggle with the iPhone keyboard are those who are already accustomed to a hardware smartphone keyboard.

article source: http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/21746/

Palm Pre Battery Offers 20% More Juice Without Increasing Size

Earlier today when pitting push notifications against background apps on handsets, I mentioned that battery life is one disadvantages of a multitasking operating system. With the original 1150mAh battery in the Palm Pre, many folks find they can’t get through a full day on a single charge. You can replace the battery in the Pre, but I personally find it difficult to remove the back case. It’s not something I’d want to do on a daily basis, although I appreciate the option.
Another option would be an extended battery, but I don’t want the Pre to be any thicker than it is. Luckily, Palm Infocenter noticed that Seidio is now shipping a higher-capacity power pack for the Pre, and it’s the same size as the original battery. At $44.95, the Innocell battery is rated for 1350mAh, or just shy of 20 percent more capacity than the 1150mAh battery that comes with the Pre. If you’re finding a low battery six or eight hours in your day, this replacement ought to last you between 7.25 and 9.5 hours on a single charge, all things being equal.

article source: http://jkontherun.com/2009/07/06/palm-pre-extended-battery/

Palm Pre - Giving iPhone A Run For Its Money

It’s now been one month since Palm released its much-hyped Pre. Two weeks have passed since Apple came out with the latest version of the iPhone, the 3G S. So now that the dust has settled a bit, how do the two stack up?
The gang over at InfoWorld pitted the two against each other in a number of categories, including e-mail, contacts and calendars; applications; Web and Internet; user interface; location support; and security management.
The writers consider the Pre an obvious winner in multitasking. They say the iPhone badly needs to improve its ability to run multiple applications at one time. The iPhone gets the edge for business use, however. Management and security is also an area where Apple’s product is the leader, and of course, the sheer number of apps available is an advantage for the iPhone.
Overall, InfoWorld gives the iPhone the edge, but considers the Pre to be a “serious contender” in the smartphone space. BlackBerry’s efforts, they say, have been “uninspiring.”

article source: http://www.phoneplusmag.com/hotnews/palm-pre-called-serious-contender-vs-iphone.html

Palm Pre Used As Agricutural Aid

As he rolls across the wheat fields of his Nebraska farm, Steve Tucker often has his hands not on the wheel of his tractor, but on a smartphone.

He sometimes posts a dozen messages per day on Twitter, commenting on everything from the weather to the state of his crops to his son's first tractor ride and even last night's cheeseburger.

"Got rained out trying to finish up planting corn. Only 90 acres left. Maybe it will dry up today and I can finish Lord willin'," he wrote in one recent post."

Just sold some more wheat, now, I wait for God to provide the harvest so I can fill the contracts," the 39-year-old said in another. "Eat more bread!"

Tucker is proof that smartphones are starting to put down roots in rural America.

He lives in a 150-person town near Brandon, Nebraska -- a place even he calls "the middle of nowhere." The nearest neighbor to his 4,000-acre farm is about 2 miles away.

Yet, farmers like Tucker are using Internet-enabled phones to gain a foothold on online social networks -- both for business and personal reasons.
____________________________________________________________

Tucker's tractor tweets
Man, it's so HOT outside, had a zit on my nose that just shriveled up and died.

I'm beginning to think I root up the desert plants I planted and plant bananas and pineapple since we are having Hawaii type weather.

This is not good, the fan on my tractor AC just stopped. It gets hot in a hurry.

This is the day the Lord has made. And he made hail which has struck about every field tonight. But I'm not bitter...not very happy either.

Another night of rain, I think we are beginning to become a tropical area. Crops in the west are way behind.

Just sold some more wheat, now, I wait for God to provide the harvest so I can fill the contracts.

Eat more bread!

Trying to fertilize and it is trying to sprinkle while I am doing it. Just give me two hours and then it can rain all it wants.

Got rained out trying to finish up planting corn. Only 90 acres left. Maybe it will dry up today and I can finish Lord willin'. ___________________________________________________________

"I can be in the most remote place and just with the power of having a BlackBerry ... I can communicate with anybody at anytime about anything," he said. "It is just amazing."

The growth of smartphones on farms is important because many people don't think about where their food comes from, much less associate a specific farmer with that process, said Andy Kleinschmidt, a farmer and agricultural extension educator at Ohio State University.

"When you can put a name or personality with someone who's actually raising corn and soybeans or actually milking cows, that's the most important thing that's come about in my opinion," he said.

A host of blogs and Twitter feeds have popped up around the subjects of technology and life on the farm. On Tuesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. ET, farmers meet on Twitter for a live chat about all things agricultural. You can watch that conversation by searching for agchat on the site.

Kleinschmidt said he uses a smartphone to check live weather reports, which can make or break a year's crop. Other farmers send him pictures of ailing plants, hoping to identify crop diseases early.

Some farmers use their phones as notepads, tracking their applications of pesticides, he said.
Developers of phone applications apparently have taken notice of the farm-tech trend, too. An iPhone application called PureSense helps techie farmers in drought-stricken places monitor how much water is in their soil at various locations and in real time.

Historically, farms have lagged behind the rest of country in Internet and computer usage. But a 2007 census by the U.S. Department of Agriculture says Web use on farms is increasing.

High-speed Internet access doubled on U.S. farms between 2005 and 2007, for instance, jumping from 13 percent to 27 percent.

That's still less than the general population, however. Fifty-five percent of farms had Internet access in 2007 compared with 62 percent of homes in the United States overall, according to government statistics. The census does not measure smartphone penetration.

Internet-enabled phones are making their way into rural America slowly because it's difficult to send Internet data over cellular networks in some sparsely populated areas where wireless service is spotty, some advocates have claimed.

Still, some farmers are adopting the technology despite the odds.

The biggest draw of smartphones and online social networks is that they provide human connections to people for whom farm life can be lonely, said Chuck Zimmerman, publisher of an agriculture news blog called agwired.com.

"Most farmers are going to be in their [tractor] cab," he said. "You're going all day long, night and day -- it can get a little bit boring, you know? So, a lot of them have satellite radio, smartphones, iPhones, BlackBerries. I can't tell you how many farmers are following me who are tweeting form the cab."

It's a misconception that farmers are behind the curve technologically, Zimmerman said."In large part, farmers tend to be very early adopters of technology. We have the stereotypical image of a hayseed farmer that still persists -- out on a tractor with a straw hat on," he said. "The reality is that most of them are very highly trained from a technological standpoint."

Tucker said his job on the farm in Nebraska includes more than harvesting wheat, corn, sunflowers and millet.

He wants to bring urban Internet users along for the ride. And in doing so, he's become a sort of text-happy evangelist for rural America.

"People out in the cities aren't familiar with agriculture like it used to be 100 years ago. They may not have an appreciation or an understanding of what goes on out in the rural side of things," he said. "I just try to be an information source for whoever may be listening."

So that's what he does from his tractor -- one tweet at a time.

article source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/02/twitter.farmer/index.html#cnnSTCText

Palm Pre customer satisfaction poll

It's been nearly a month since the launch of Palm's newest handset, the Pre. Since then, we here at Engadget have heard some vague and hard to substantiate claims of hardware failures -- cracked screens, a little broken plastic here and there -- but nothing on a large scale, so far as we can tell. We thought it was about time to turn it over to you the readers (the ones lucky enough to have a Pre, anyway), to tell us how the phone is holding up physically. Is it tough as nails or is it falling apart?

As of July 4 at 1:00 am 33,127 people have responded to the poll that was originally posted on the Engadget website. The results are below

Mine's looking good, no problems! 4223 (12.7%)

I've had one minor issue... 864 (2.6%)

I've had more than one minor issue, but I'm keeping it. 585 (1.8%)

Major problems! I'm taking it back (or already have). 2044 (6.2%)

Pre? I don't have one of those. 25411 (76.7%)

article source:http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/03/poll-hows-your-palm-pre-holding-up/

Palm Pre Exceeds Sales Expectations

Palm has sold nearly twice the number of Pre smartphones as previously estimated, according to Ed Snyder, co-founder and wireless industry analyst at Charter Equity Research.

Synder says Palm sold 300,000 of the new smartphones in June, and another 75,000 in late May. Neither Palm nor sole-carrier Sprint have yet disclosed numbers, and some analysts put the June sales figure at 150,000. Snyder based his estimates on talks with unnamed sources in retail and manufacturing channels.

His research and conclusions are cited in an InformationWeek story, which cites his claim that Palm is now cranking ouit 15,000 units per day, and still has not caught up the strong demand for the Pre. Snyder estimates thatPalm and will deliver about 1 million units during the first full quarter of manufacturing.

Apple's new iPhone 3GS, with the 3.0 operating system, sold that many in its opening weekend.
Still, the TechTraderDaily blog at Barrons.com noted that Snyder says the 1 million units are "well above consensus." And Snyder expects Palm to reach about 1 million units per month by early 2010 or before, as it rolls out a WCDMA/GSM version of the Pre with Spain's Telefonica in September, and the announced roll-out with Bell Mobility in Canada. (Engadget this week posted a video from Vietnam, of all places, which purports to show a Palm Pre with a GSM radio; the voice-over is presumably Vietnamese but in any case it's not English.)

AT&T has expressed interest in the Palm product, and speculation has been rife that Sprint would have exclusive U.S. sale of the Pre for barely six months. But it's possible that Palm could introduce for the 3G GSM camp in the U.S. an entirely separate webOS-based device, such as the rumored Eos, something of a BlackBerry lookalike: a "candy bar" style with the keyboard set openly below the screen.

article source: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43200

To Pre or to iPhone That Is The Question

Q-I’m trying to decide between a Palm Pre and an Apple iPhone 3GS. I now use an antiquated Treo 650, which contains all of my life. Will all my contacts, calendar info and memos in the Treo transfer to either phone?

A-Getting the data from the Treo 650 to either a Palm Pre or an Apple iPhone is possible, but it may take a little more effort (and software) for an iPhone. It all depends on what program you’re using to synchronize your Treo’s data with the computer.
On a Windows system, the iPhone can sync up contacts, calendars, notes and bookmarks from Microsoft Outlook 2003 or 2007 using Apple’s iTunes program. On the Mac, the iPhone can sync up the information with Microsoft Entourage–or with Apple’s own Mac OS X Address Book, iCal calendar program, and Safari Web browser. (It’s also possible to sync up Yahoo and Google contacts.)
If you’ve been synching the Treo to Outlook regularly, set the iPhone preferences in iTunes to sync with Outlook. If you’ve been using Palm Desktop for Windows, a third-party program like Chapura’s $25 PocketCopy is one of the easier ways to catapult Palm Desktop data into Outlook so it can sync up.
The Mac version of Palm Desktop lets you export contact and calendar information as vCard and vCal files, which can then be respectively imported into Mac OS X Address Book and iCal. Palm which prepares the data for use with a Palm Pre.
Palm’s new Pre smartphone uses a program called the Data Transfer Agent to harvest your contacts, calendars and other information from Palm Desktop or Outlook for Window, or Mac OS X Address Book and iCal for the Mac. According to Palm, this is a one-way transfer to move the data off the computer and onto the Pre–where it will actually be syncing with an online service compatible with Palm Synergy software like Google or Microsoft Exchange.
If you want to continue two-way data synchronization with a desktop program, the PalmInfoCenter site has a roundup of third-party software. The Treonauts blog also has a lengthy rundown of solutions.
article source: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/q-a-to-pre-or-iphone/

Palm Pre vs. iPhone 3Gs vs. 3G - speed tests

Powerup: 3G by a mile, Palm Pre pwnd

Browsing: Palm Pre wins, 3Gs slowest

Real World Test: 3Gs broke, Palm Pre wins.

video source: http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/palm_pre_v_iphone_3gs_v_3g_v_s.php

Palm may have sold 300,000 Pres in June

Palm may have sold as many as 300,000 Pre phones in less than a month on sale, according to a investor's note by Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. He estimates that about 120,000 Pres were available on launch day but that these sold out within days and that about 15,000 examples of the multi-touch phone are being made every day, leading to the final estimate for the month. As many as 1 million phones could reach Sprint by the end of the first quarter of sales, which for Palm finishes at the end of August.
The number is just a fraction that of what Apple is expected to produce for the month, as it shipped 1 million iPhone 3GS units just on its opening weekend alone. Regardless, the tally if accurate would represent a potential breakthrough for Palm, which shipped just 351,000 phones through the entire quarter before the Pre's debut.Snyder also expects better still for the company and believes that by September it should have a GSM- and HSPA-based version of the Pre launched for Telefonica. Combined with a Bell Canada launch in August, the analyst believes Palm could ship as many as 1 million phones per month. This also may not include the expected Eos budget smartphone for AT&T and Sprint.
article source: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/06/30/palm.may.have.sold.300k/

Palm Pre Takes The Storm and iPhone By Surprise

Although Palm is not an iPhone killer, they may be eating into the regular Blackberry market. Like other smartphones, the Pre has a touch screen display and retails for about $199 with a two year commitment from Sprint. We were able to find the Blackberry Storm for around $150 after a two year commitment and $70 rebate. Apple’s phone is about $200 also.
The Pre is using the new WebOS to serve-up webpages and other applications. Palm has been struggling to keep up with demand. The company has sold over 300,000 phones already. According to Matt Richtel of the New York Times, they are pushing 15,000 units out the door every day. Although Sprint is the primary distributor, Palm may be considering other vendors as well after the first of the year.
Unlike the iPhone, the Palm has a physical keyboard. This is great for those out there who never liked the touch screen.
There is no need to connect a wire to the Palm to transfer data to and from the device. The new Pre can connect to a Mac or PC wirelessly to move contacts or calendars back and forth.
It has a built in GPS. There is a Citysearch that allows you to quickly find businesses. Then read reviews of the businesses and even submit your own.
Of course you can twitter, email and text your friends. It works with Google calendar and Gmail. Yahoo and other web based services are free. You can do this with Apple too, but it will cost you $99 per year for the MobileMe service.
You can also use the new Pre as a telephone.

By Dan Wilson
http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=20090629_palm_pre_compared_to_vs_iphone.htm

Palm Pre Build Quality Issues Continue to Slide Out

So how’s the build quality on your Palm Pre? My particular unit is solid, but I’m reading more and more accounts of people complaining about their Pre handsets. Some folks have experienced cracked screens. Others see issues with the sliding hinge mechanism. Here are just a few of the several examples from a forum thread over at PreCentral to illustrate:

“I’m on my THIRD pre (yellow box). Over the last two weeks, I’ve noticed an increasing amount of play with the screen. I’ve also noticed that on the left side of the device the two sections are separated enough that i can almost see the innards. When I push them together, you can hear squeaking. On top of that, the device came with a loose power button that doesn’t click nearly as firmly as that of other devices.”

“I already exchanged my first one due to a faulty screen, and will likely also exchange my current one because of a wobbly/loose slider. Hopefully third time’s a charm.”
Then there’s the picture shown above of a gap between the two sliding halves of the unit. The owner of the pic claims that he’s not creating the gap with his thumb, he’s just using it to show the gap. If true, there’s clearly an issue with the slider on his particular unit.

What makes these issues particularly interesting is the lower than expected supply of handsets at launch and not a peep from Sprint or Palm on the return rate of the devices. Note that a question about sales and return rates was posed on the Palm investor call last week, but it wasn’t answered. It could well be that the number of poorly constructed handsets don’t equal a significant amount, so I’m not drawing any conclusions just yet. But accounts like those above in combination with limited supply have me wondering if there’s a quality control issue behind the scenes.
I know we have a few Pre owners out there. Have any of you exchanged your unit due to a defect of some type or is your hardware in perfect working order? Thanks to LucaMorandi for the tip via Twitter!

article source:
http://jkontherun.com/2009/06/29/palm-pre-build-quality-issues-continue-to-slide-out/

Palm responds to Apple's warning

Apple has issued a warning that it does not support iTunes synchronization with "non-Apple digital media players" and that future versions of the software may put an end to any such capability. While Apple didn't point any fingers, it's hard to believe the warning wasn't directed right at the Palm Pre, which shows up as an iPod when connected to iTunes and allows you to sync non-DRM media to the smartphone.
Palm isn't taking it lying down and has responded to Apple's threats. Speaking to John Paczkowski of the Wall Street Journal, Palm spokesperson Lynn Fox said:
Palm's media sync works with the current version of iTunes. If Apple chooses to disable media sync in a future version of iTunes, it will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience. However, people will have options. They can stay with the iTunes version that works to sync their music on their Pre, they can transfer the music via USB, and there are other third-party applications we could consider.
Also, as MyPre.com points out, Apple would have to specifically block the Pre since it shows up as an iPod and any casual changes to iTunes could affect legacy iPod support. Either way, things are getting pretty sticky. Apple, your move.

by Bonnie Cha

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10266423-1.html

Palm and Sprint takes gloves off, aim for Apple's chin

Attention, iPhone users: We've found a way (via Pre Thinking and Sprint's Facebook page) that you can save up to $1,200 over two years on your service plans! All you have to do is buy a Palm Pre and sign up for service with Sprint.
Sure, you won't have your iPhone anymore, or your AT&T service. But if you're using a first-gen iPhone, you're likely about to be out of a contract. Even if you're not, the $1,200 should offset anything like a contract cancellation fee, right?
This logic all comes from an interesting--and aggressive--ad campaign from Sprint. Aimed squarely at users of the original iPhone, Sprint is pointing out not just that its plans are cheaper overall, but that its first-gen device can do things Apple's can't.
This means we might actually be seeing the first salvos in the superphone wars we've been talking about since the iPhone first showed its shiny face two years ago. And Palm's soldier has a real keyboard.

by Matt Hickey
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10274278-1.html

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Palm Pre SDK Kit summer release, Jailbreak and jailbroken applications

The Palm Pre Mojo SDK will become available by the end of summer, which means developers will have to wait for a while to create applications.
However, according to an article on topnews, the hacker community are hard at work creating jailbroken applications for the Palm Pre similar to the jailbroken iPhone apps.
Palm has built a developer friendly webOS enabling developers to create mobile applications using JavaScript, CSS, HTML and other web standard coding, but the Mojo SDK is still necessary for creating official applications for the Palm Pre. Palm has also stated that Mojo based apps will be way better than any jailbreak app or hacking attempts.

article source: http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2009/06/24/palm-pre-sdk-kit-summer-release-jailbreak-and-jailbroken-applications/

In wake of loss, Palm looks to Pre as savior

Palm announced big losses for its fiscal fourth quarter, the last quarter before its hot new smartphone hit the market, but executives see the Pre as the key to its turnaround.

Palm Pre
CEO Jon Rubinstein said Thursday during the company's earnings conference call that sales of the Palm Pre, which hit the market on June 6, have been "strong and growing."
He didn't give exact sales figures for the device, which has a touch screen and uses a new operating system call WebOS, but he added that he "couldn't be happier with our launch." Analysts estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres were sold in the first few days that the device was available. The phone is exclusively available on Sprint Nextel's network.
That's the good news for Palm, which on Thursday reported a dismal fiscal fourth quarter, which ended May 30. For the quarter, Palm reported a loss of $91.5 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $41.1 million, or 40 cents a share. Revenue fell 71 percent to $86.8 million.
But Palm's new CEO, a former executive at Apple's iPhone music player division who replaced former CEO Ed Colligan earlier this month, thinks the company is on the right track with the Pre.
"The launch of Palm WebOS and Palm Pre was a major milestone in Palm's transformation; we have now officially reentered the race," Rubinstein said in a statement. "We have more to accomplish, but the groundwork is laid for a very promising future here at Palm."
While it's unlikely the Pre will catch up to Apple's iPhone anytime soon, analysts are predicting a heavy volume of sales. Some say that the company could sell about 100,000 handsets in July and 200,000 in August.
Rubinstein said he was confident that the company would meet demand for the new device.
Palm has been banking on the Pre to help it revive its ailing smartphone business. But the company faces stiff competition from others, such as iPhone maker Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.
One thing that might hold back adoption of the Palm Pre is the fact that only a handful of applications are yet available for the phone. But Palm executives said on the call that they are working to get more apps out to users. That said, the market research firm Medialets reports that Pre users have already downloaded over a million applications so far.

article source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10273315-94.html

Review: Palm Pre Smartphone Mostly Pleases

Palm is under a lot of pressure. Once the innovative leader of the smartphone world, it has fallen by the wayside in recent years as newcomers such as Apple and Google have bested it with fresher mobile operating systems. Palm has sunk a lot of time and money into developing the Pre and webOS, its brand new smartphone platform. As Boeing once bet its future on the 747, and Ford on the Taurus, so is Palm taking a huge leap of faith in this new mobile operating system and smartphone. Will Palm be able to follow in Boeing and Ford's footsteps?

Demo: The new Yahoo Mobile for Smart Phones, due out late Spring 2009, contains a host of new features, including search assist via voice commands, the ability to see all your social network status updates in one spot and much more.The competition is not going to make it easy on Palm. Apple's iPhone OS 3.0, and new iPhone 3G S have been well received. Sales are hot. The original iPhone and iPhone 3G have combined sold more than 13 million units.
Then there's Android to think about. It may not be the smash hit that the iPhone has been so far, but only one handset has hit the market. The HTC G1 recently passed the million-units-sold mark in the U.S., and has sold even more worldwide. The next few months should see the number of Android devices blossom.
Both RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) are putting forth their best efforts, too. RIM is prepared to launch a second version of the touchscreen Storm, and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices should be hitting store shelves sometime later this year. Where will Palm and webOS fit in?
Pre Hardware
The Pre smartphone itself is a solid effort, but fails in some respects. As other reviewers have noted, the materials and build quality feel somewhat cheap and "plasticky." It's true. It really does. That's not to say Palm didn't give the design some thought. The Pre, rounded and smooth, is fashioned after a river rock. It's attractive and feels great to hold in your hand. It's also small and lightweight. Those who prefer to stuff their phones into their front pockets -- or any other pocket, for that matter -- will be pleased with the small footprint.
The display is absolutely gorgeous. It may not be the biggest display on the planet, but it looks superb. Web sites look fantastic, pictures look great, and text and graphics are very readable -- including outside in sunlight.

About that keyboard. Some are going to like it, some are going to hate it. It's not the best QWERTY keyboard I've used, and it isn't the worst. The buttons are tiny and covered in a rubbery substance. My fingers didn't slip around on the keyboard when typing, though I did manage to fat-finger multiple keys at once. The keys don't offer a lot of travel and feedback, but I found there was enough to let me know that I had pushed each button.
There is no microSD slot for extra storage, but the Pre has 8GB built into the device. It can be used with most regular 3.5mm stereo headphones, and the microUSB port is used to both charge the phone and transfer data (such as pictures and music) to a PC.

Need GPS navigation? Check out Garmin's 2GB SD card that can be plugged into a Palm smartphoneFor the vain users in the crowd, the Pre has a mirror built into the back of the sliding mechanism and is usable when the Pre is open. Alternately, all the MacGyvers out there can use it to signal rescue aircraft.
What bugs me is that this device is an important issue for Palm: Why would it go cheap on the materials and build quality? It doesn't make sense. Pricing concerns aside, I've seen devices at similar (and even lower) price points beat the pants off of the Pre with respect to build quality. I can only shake my head in dismay.
As a phone, the Pre gets the job done. Phone calls sound loud and clear. In fact, the Pre sounds better than most other Sprint (NYSE: S) phones I've tested. Very little noise, static or other cellular nonsense.
Battery life is somewhat lacking. The average is two days, depending on how some of the network-intensive applications such as email and instant messaging are configured. Even with some massaging of these apps, the best I was able to get was 2.5 days of battery life. Palm says this is "normal" for a device such as the Pre.
webOS
Palm sold millions of devices running the old Palm OS, which was -- at the time of its release -- easy to use, finger-friendly, and good at organizing personal information. Its webOS is far superior.
webOS completely rids itself of the shackles employed by Palm in previous mobile operating systems and starts from the ground up. In order to use the Pre, the first thing each user has to do is create a Palm profile. The profile is defined by an email account and other online identities via instant messaging clients, social networking sites, and so on. Once that's taken care of, the Pre assembles all the components under the hood.

The user interface of webOS is not quite as intuitive as several other touch-based systems currently on the market, but it can be learned rapidly. When navigating the menus, access to the phone, contacts, email, and calendar is almost always present via a semi-permanent set of software buttons that run along the bottom of the screen.
These go away once an application is opened. It's fun to flick through the menu pages and interact with the "cards", which Palm uses to contain each application. The cards can be minimized and stored in the background for fast access to other applications. There does not appear to be a limit to the number of cards that can be open at any given time.

Demo: The new Yahoo Mobile for Smart Phones, due out late Spring 2009, contains a host of new features, including search assist via voice commands, the ability to see all your social network status updates in one spot and much more.The nerve center of webOS is Synergy, Palm's new contact and personal information management system. Synergy takes all the contact information from users' separate online identities and merges them into one list. For example, if Bob Smith is part of a user's Exchange-based contacts and Bob also happens to be a friend on Facebook, the separate data from these two accounts is pasted together, giving the end user access to all of Bob's contact information in one spot. Each contact can hold reams of data, which is automatically synced back and forth between whatever accounts they originated from so the information is always up to date.
To be quite frank, I love it. Every email system, social networking system, and smartphone needs to be able to work this well to manage end user contact data. Kudos to Palm.
Messaging
With the exception of audio and video messages, the Palm Pre handles pretty much any messaging needs a user might have. The e=mail application is robust. Multiple accounts can be set up, each with separate inboxes, folders, and filters. Punching out e-mails is intuitive enough, and the Pre handles HTML emails -- complete with attachments -- with ease. The Pre comes loaded with a PDF viewer and Word/Excel viewer, so those expense reports and memos can be looked at, though not edited.
Text and picture messages are threaded into conversations based on each contact. This means every message received from a single sender is lumped into an on-going stream. Having both text and picture messages together is something that all smartphones should do.
Instant messaging accounts are paired in the same application as text messages. The Pre plays nicely with GChat, AIM, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Messenger, and other popular IM clients.
All of the messaging services are connected to the end user's contacts data via Syngery.

Multimedia
Don't get fooled into thinking the Pre is all about social networking and inter-connectedness. It can play pretty hard, too.

Need GPS navigation? Check out Garmin's 2GB SD card that can be plugged into a Palm smartphoneThe Pre carries a 3-megapixel camera. It doesn't have autofocus, but it does have a flash. The camera takes pictures extremely fast. It shoots them nearly as fast as the shutter release button can be pressed. This means end users aren't likely to miss those must-have shots of their kids scoring the game-winning goal. Even when the flash is being used, the camera works lickety-split.
The camera does lack a number of features, though. All users can do is take pictures. There are no user-configurable controls for altering the way the Pre captures images. This means the photographers in the crowd might run into some frustration in that they won't be able to fine-tune the camera. For most users, this probably isn't going to be an issue. Pictures taken with the Pre are pretty good. Focus, exposure, white balance and color were captured accurately by the Pre.
The Pre doesn't shoot video -- at least, not yet. Why a device of this caliber is unable to capture video is beyond me. It stands out as a head-scratcher.
For those who need to have their tunes with them at all times, the Pre serves quite well as a music playback device. It syncs seamlessly with both iTunes and Windows Media Player. It has a graphically rich user interface that displays album art and lets users do cool things such as search for YouTube videos and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) MP3s based on the artist being played. I missed any sort of equalizers to control how music sounds, but many probably won't care about that.
The Pre also comes with a YouTube application. It can be used to search for and playback videos. It works well enough, though the YouTube application doesn't allow for sharing or otherwise linking to videos. This seems an odd omission to me.
There is an Amazon MP3 store built in, as well. Similar to the one found in Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s Android operating system, it can be used to search for, purchase and download MP3s directly over the air to the Pre.
Browser
The Pre's browser is highly capable, and makes for a good mobile Web experience. Bookmarks are stored as cards, each containing a preview of that particular Web site. Since the Pre uses Sprint (NYSE: S)'s EVDO Rev. A network, browsing is speedy. Full HTML sites load in 5 to 15 seconds, depending on the site. Pinching or tapping gestures can be used to zoom in and out, and sliding your finger around the screen lets you pan around Web sites with ease.

Apps Catalog
The Pre is loaded with a beta version of Palm's forthcoming application catalog. It works in very similar fashion to the stores we've seen from Apple, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), and Research In Motion (NSDQ: RIMM). A lot of the apps available include those from Pandora, the AP, AccuWeather, Fandango, New York Times, and others. Each application has a star rating (1 to 5) as well as user reviews.

Need GPS navigation? Check out Garmin's 2GB SD card that can be plugged into a Palm smartphoneApplications download and install in mere seconds and are automatically added to the main menu. The beta version of the site has not been populated with too many applications, but more are on the way.
Odds and Ends
Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth are all included. Each works as well as you'd expect them to. The Wi-Fi was speedy for browsing, the GPS worked great with both Sprint (NYSE: S) Navigation and Google Maps for mapping out directions, and the Bluetooth works well with both mono and stereo headsets.
Conclusion
The Pre from Palm gets most things right. The hardware itself isn't great, but it isn't terrible either. The design is pretty, but could have been executed slightly better. The display is excellent, though the QWERTY keyboard my frustrate some. As for managing user contact data, it gets everything right. Synergy is excellent, a model for the industry. Messaging needs are well in hand. Multimedia capabilities are taken care of in good order, with only the lack of video capture standing out.
The Pre itself may leave some disappointed, but webOS has a future. I'm already looking forward to the next smartphone from Palm to run webOS.
article source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101430&pgno=1&queryText=&isPrev=

Video tour of the Palm Pre with webOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnlzbuLRwM

Palm Pre Sales Hit 150,000 -- Predictions for Millions in the Next Year

A market analyst says Sprint has probably sold 150,000 Palm Pre's since this smartphone debuted early this month. But that's just a drop in the bucket for analyst's predictions for the future.
At this point, sales are still being held down by the Palm's inability to meet demand. This is something these companies warned would be the case after the launch, and Palm isn't expected to be able to keep up with demand until late next month.
Looking AheadAnalysts are releasing their projections for Palm's sales, and as often happens there's a wide range in the predictions.
RBC analyst Mark Abramsky is the one who announced the 150,000 figure, and he says this company will likely sell 4.1 million webOS-based smartphones in the next 12 months, and 6.5 million in the following year.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Credit Suisse, who predicts Palm's sales will hit 7.7 million in the next year.

by Ed Hardy
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=15382&news=Palm+Pre+Sprint

Palm Pre App Catalog exceeds one million downloads

"On launch day, Palm sold 50k devices and their App Catalog experienced 100k downloads - that's an average of 2 apps downloaded per device and 5,500 downloads per app (with a low of 600 and a high of 20k)," wrote Bryan Barletta on the Medialets website . "18 days later and they've tripled the user base to 150k units, averaging 6+ apps downloaded per device and 33.3k downloads per app (with a low of 2.4k and a high of 114k)."

While Barletta conceded that the iTunes App Store was the "most successful app store in the mobile market today," he insisted that there really was no "common ground" for the two competing stores based on the "numerous factors involved."
"The App Store hit the 1 million download point about 17 days earlier than the App Catalog, housing more than 16x the amount of apps and was accessible by more than 26x the number of devices than the App Catalog," explained Barletta. "Looks pretty bad for the Pre, right? Well, that's until you take a look at the downloads themselves."According to Barletta, the average Palm Pre user downloaded 26x the number of apps that iPhone users had, while the average application in the Pre Catalog experienced 16x the number of downloads compared to App Store programs.

By Aharon Etengoff
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/42996/145/

As iPhone contracts expire, Sprint and Palm waits with open arms

Early adopters, Sprint is gunning for you.
The company unveiled an advertisement today that targets a very specific demographic: those who bought an iPhone in June 2007. The ad, posted on Facebook this morning, seems to hearken back to the ’80s Sega commercial “Genesis does what Nintendon’t.”
The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t. Run multiple applications at the same time with real-time updates and even save $1200 over two years. It’s the perfect time to join the Now Network, America’s most trusted 3G network, bringing you the first and only 4G network from a national carrier.
The ad lands just as the original crop of iPhone owners reach the end of their two-year contracts. What better time to ditch AT&T, argued Roger McNamee, whose investment firm reinvigorated Palm several years back.
June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it — if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they’re going to buy.
To be fair, a week after that March interview with Bloomberg, Palm said that McNamee’s statement was an “exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.” Recantation or no, the tactic is back.
By the numbers
With the launch of the iPhone 3GS, Apple sold one million iPhones last weekend. Pre’s opening weekend saw 50,000 sales, and an additional 100,000 this month. It’s hard to predict if closeted Pre fans are waiting patiently for their contracts to expire before switching to Sprint.
However, Wall Street feels confident. Palm’s share price jumped 16 percent today after the company reported its results for the latest quarter. The ticker closed at $16.22 today, the highest it’s been since Oct. 2007, when a dividend payment depressed the stock value. Palm had trouble buoying its stock, until it unveiled the Pre this January.
The Wall Street Journal reports that:
The exuberance among investors puzzled some analysts, who found little in Palm’s results to give them a handle on the company’s prospects. The company just introduced its first phone with a new operating system that will make or break Palm as it tries to compete with the iPhone and other smart phones. Palm appeared to be confident when reporting results late Thursday, saying that it could have positive cash flow by the second half of the recently begun fiscal year.

By Chris Gaylord
http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/06/26/as-iphone-contracts-expire-sprint-and-palm-waits-with-open-arms/

Verizon to sell Palm Pre, new BlackBerry phones

Palm Inc's - iPhone competitor Pre got an unexpected boost on Thursday as No. 1 U.S. mobile service Verizon Wireless said Pre would be part of its upcoming device line-up, sending Palm shares 8.8 percent higher.
Palm is depending heavily on Pre to galvanize its business and regain market share from rivals such as Apple Inc. Pre is also seen as key to helping stem customer losses at Verizon's smaller rival Sprint Nextel Corp, which is launching the Pre exclusively on June 6.
Verizon, the No. 1 U.S. mobile service, will offer Pre in "six months or so," company Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said during a conference webcast.
Verizon Wireless said its phone line-up would also include a new version of the touchscreen controlled BlackBerry Storm from Research In Motion Ltd , and a new BlackBerry called Tour. Also slated are devices from Motorola Inc and phones based on Android, the Google Inc mobile system.
"Over the next six months or so you will see devices like Palm Pre and a second generation Storm" on the Verizon Wireless network, McAdam said. "You can expect to see us launch a steady stream of new devices from multiple vendors."
Some analysts had worried that Palm was limiting Pre's success by forging an exclusive agreement with Sprint, which lasts at least until year-end, as first reported by Reuters in February and confirmed by Sprint on Thursday. [ID:nN19369506]
As a result, UBS analyst Maynard Um said Verizon's Pre news was encouraging for Palm investors. But the analyst predicted increasing competition in the advanced phone market, saying that Motorola "could be the wildcard in the smartphone race" as it has the potential to be most aggressive on price.
"However, visibility in an increasingly competitive market is still limited," the analyst said in a research note.
Um also said he expects other new Palm phones based on the same operating system as Pre. For example Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of AT&T Inc, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, said during a conference on Wednesday that his company would also like to sell Pre but he did not give a timeframe. AT&T uses a different network technology from Sprint.
The comments come ahead of Sprint's long-awaited Saturday, June 6, launch of Pre and the expected announcement of a new iPhone from Apple in the week after that.
Top executives from both Palm and Sprint have said they expect Pre shortages around the launch due to strong demand. Palm said on Thursday that the device would include a universal search service that will let users to search everything from their phone contacts list to popular micro-blogging site Twitter or Web encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Palm said the device's operating system, webOS, also allows Pre to synchronize with iTunes, Apple's popular music software, so users can easily transfer music, photos and video to their phone.
McAdam's announcement was also a boost for Motorola Inc, which has been steadily losing market share and is pinning its hopes on the launch of a new line-up of advanced phones based on Android later this year.
AT&T is the exclusive U.S. provider for iPhone and derives much of its customer growth from the wildly popular and much imitated touchscreen device.
Verizon's McAdam said that multiple device launches for the rest of this year would ensure his company is not be dependent on any one phone for keeping customers and winning new ones.
Verizon Wireless is already the exclusive U.S. carrier for the first BlackBerry Storm launched by Research In Motion late last year. While reviews of the first Storm were mixed, Verizon had said Jan. 28 that it had sold 1 million phones since the device's Nov. 21 launch.
McAdam said Verizon Wireless said Tour would be a new upscale BlackBerry, that that company expects to sell along with Storm in the next six months or so.
RIM had said earlier this month that it was planning a new edition of Storm to help it push into the consumer market but it had not announced a timeframe.
Verizon rose 32 cents to close at $29.27 and Sprint was up 7 cents at $5.14, both on the New York Stock Exchange. On Nasdaq, Palm rose 93 cents to $11.46 and RIM's U.S. shares were up $3.01, or 3.9 percent, at $80.30. (Reporting by Sinead Carew and Franklin Paul; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Diego; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Richard Chang)

By Sinead Carew and Franklin Paul
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2833749320090528

Palm shares soar after earnings report

Shares of Palm Inc. shot up about 16 percent Friday in the wake of the company's fourth-quarter earnings report.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based mobile phone maker Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) closed the day at $16.22.
The company on Thursday reported a widened fourth quarter loss but nevertheless beat analyst estimates.
Palm had a loss of $105 million, or 78 cents a share, more than double the year-ago quarter's loss of $43.4 million, or 40 cents a share.
Sales of Palm's new Pre smartphone were not included in the latest earnings report.

article source: Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) - by Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/06/22/daily72.html

Palm Unveils Its Long-Awaited Smartphone, the Pre

Struggling smartphone pioneer Palm announced a new phone, dubbed the "Pre," along with a new operating system that could give the company a fighting chance against its more powerful rivals.
The new Palm Pre, announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show, is a sleek black device that evokes the iPhone touchscreen and form factor. But it is no ordinary iPhone clone. It offers a clean interface, a combination of touchscreen and keyboard inputs, and a curvy black exterior.
"This brings Palm back into the game," said Tim Bajarin, industry analyst and consultant with the firm Creative Strategies. "It’s a very slick and solid device. Having both the touch screen and drop down keyboard is exceptional."
Palm made history with its early handheld device, the Palm Pilot, which was the first personal digital assistant to achieve widespread success. The company later broke new ground with its Treo line of smartphones, which combined PDA and cellphone features. But in recent years the company has fallen on harder times, losing market share to rivals such as Apple, Motorola and Nokia. Many industry watchers regard Palm’s widely-anticipated phone as the company’s last best shot at survival.
The 3.1-inch touchscreen Palm Pre weighs 4.8 ounces also comes with a QWERTY slide-out keyboard. The phone supports Wi-Fi and EVDO and has 8GB storage.
"The Palm Pre is the phone that thinks ahead," said Ed Colligan, CEOof Palm, at the CES 2009 at one of the most anticipated events of the year." The phone is beautiful inside and out from a design perspective and it is one device that will help you navigate through your lives seamlessly."
"Mobile is in our DNA," said Colligan.
The phone will be available on the Sprint network "as soon as possible", said Palm. The company still needs to get FCC certification to launch the product. Palm did not disclose pricing for the device.
The new user interface and design should help Palm silence its critics who have assailed the company’s recent Treo phones as being too bulky and out of touch with what consumers really want.
With the touchscreen Pre phone, Palm has hopped on to the trend set by Apple’s iPhone and improved on it.
Palm Pre has a touchscreen not just on the main display area but also extends to the center button at the bottom of the phone to an area called the gesture zone. The Pre also comes with a removable battery.
The Palm Pre is built off a new platform called Palm Web OS that the company says it created from the ground up. "It is going to redefine the center of your access point to the Internet," said Colligan. "It is built on industry standard web tools and if you know HTML, CSS andJavscript you can develop for this platform."
That should help Palm attract mobile developers who have to choose among different platforms including the iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.
Palm also launched a wireless charging accessory called Touchstone, a smooth pebble-like gadget that allows users to drop their Palm Pre phone on it and allow for it to be charged wirelessly.
Palm Pre’s user interface evokes the Apple’s design ethos—a move that might not be entirely accidental.After all Palm executive Chairman Jon Rubenstein who introduced the Pre has been instrumental in the launch of the iPod and the creation of the iMac line at Apple. Rubenstein moved to Palm in 2007.
The launch of the Pre has also been interesting in that there were almost no leaked information about the phone available prior to its launch — a culture of secrecy that Apple is better known for.
"There’s no question Palm is following in Apple’s footsteps," saysJack Gold who runs the industry consulting firm J.Gold Associates."Apple is really the benchmark for everyone in the industry and Palm is trying to beat that standard."
With Pre Palm has taken the first steps towards making a comeback. But the company still needs to work out details including pricing, which will be a critical factor for consumers makign their purchases this year.
The phone’s launch on the Sprint network could limit the device’s popularity among users. "Sprint is a question mark in terms of carrier choice," saysBajarin. "It has had some ups and downs. A bigger carrier could have given greater reach for the phone."

article source http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/01/palms-new-phone/