Many people believe Palm’s latest product, the Pre, must be a success in order to keep Palm on the map. The new phone is aimed squarely at the iPhone much as the new Black Berry Storm also takes aim directly at Apples successful smart phone. After looking over the various features and software on the Pre, I’m led to think this is in fact the first phone to have a chance at really competing with Apples iPhone. But it’s no cake walk.
The phones looks like its a similar size than the iPhone, perhaps a bit smaller and much more round. Apple has proven one of the most successful features of their phone to be the easy and fun to use OS. So it makes sense Palm has pumped quite a bit of time and money into their own mobile OS unlike anything they’ve released before. They call it WebOS and it is supposedly based on all web standards. Whether or not this is a good thing is yet to be seen it should certainly make the system easy to develop for. That said, the OS certainly looks beautiful, and appears to have a some great usability features like the iPhones.
A slide out keyboard was chose instead of an onscreen one. So long as this does not add extra bulk, it seems like it will be a fine choice. But unlike Apple’s onscreen keyboard, a physical one cannot tailor itself to the content on-screen. You can probably expect many virtual pads to still be used. For example, it looks like it has an onscreen number pad for calling, remarkably similar to Apples.
This brings up the quality of the touch screen. So far, competing phones that tout touch screens pail next to the iPhone largely because they use older touch technology that 1) is not multitouch and 2) does not have the same responsive feel as the iPhones. The Palm Pre screen is supposed to be multitouch much like the iPhone, so in theory this should be a big draw to the phone.
Of-course, many have been quick to point out that Palm is opening up the Pre to software development right away. This should also help speed up the pick up of the device. But it also depends on an overall experience that is as pleasing as the one Apple has created with the iPhone, App Store, and iTunes combo.
Palm has a great chance this time but there are still many hurtles. We have yet to see what the user experience of this product is really like and if it can compete with the iPhone. It is also important to remember that Apples iPhone was released one and half years ago with most all the same features of the Palm Pre. If after this much time they offer only as much as Apple but not more, they run the very high risk that Apple will simple leap from them either before or shortly after the Pre’s release. We’ve seen the competition run into this very same problem already trying to play catch up with the iPhone.
The Pre’s price point has not yet been announced and the phone should be released the first half of ’09. That’s right around the time Apple is due to release an update of their own.
Read Cnet’s detailed account from the live CES keynote.
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