Palm loyalists have circled the date June 6 on their calendars as – no, not just the 65th anniversary of D-Day -- the day the much-anticipated Pre smartphone goes on sale.
But it is kind of a D-Day for Palm, which lost its title of market share leader to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry in recent years and hopes the Pre marks its comeback.
Palm will find out when the wireless carrier Sprint, initially the exclusive carrier for the phone, begins selling the Pre through its stores for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year service contract. It will also be available at several consumer electronics chains and it can be activated by Sprint over the air.
Initial buzz about the Pre has been largely positive since its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Most impressive is the new Linux-based operating system for the device, the Palm webOS, replacing an OS that was dated by comparison to the bells and whistles on the iPhone and BlackBerry.
Here’s a quick rundown of the new features of Pre:
- Palm Synergy brings together the user’s personal and work calendar, contacts and e-mail into one place for easier operation. It also displays a thread of the user’s communications with a particular person, be it on instant messaging, voice mail or texting.
- The Pre improves multitasking by allowing the user to run music, a Web session and various applications simultaneously. The technology, which Palm calls “activity cards,” allows the user to switch back and forth between apps, like going through a deck of cards, and call one forward while the others remain running in the background.
- Touchstone is Palm’s new charging dock for the Pre. Instead of plugging a cord into the phone or clicking it into position on a typical dock, the $50 Touchstone uses inductive charging to refresh the battery. The user places the device on a platform and magnets automatically align the device to begin charging. Better yet, one can still use the device while it’s charging. The phone, for instance, automatically switches to the speakerphone to continue a call.
The Pre has generated a fair amount of buzz, including from some of my fellow Examiners. San Francisco Business Tech Examiner Jeffrey Fritz discusses whether the Pre has the capability to be an “iPhone killer.” New York Internet Examiner Susan Walsh sizes up the the Pre application development community and whether it will be a match for Apple’s AppStore or other mobile application communities. And LA Gossip Examiner Daryl D writes that actress Angelina Jolie reportedly has a prerelease Pre. (I figured I couldn’t go wrong, page view wise, by dropping that name.)
Full disclosure here: I am a regular Palm user. I have had about a half dozen Palms, including some PDA-only models. I bought a non-Palm smartphone once, didn’t like it and bought a Treo, even paying full list for it (not the lower price that comes with a service contract). Even though the outdated Palm OS has been surpassed by operating systems from Apple, RIM and others, the Palm does what I need it to do.
Of course, my current Palm Centro, which I bought only last fall, will seem even more dated after June 6.
There are other issues related to the Pre, which I will address in upcoming posts.
Comments