Originally Posted by jbg7474:
It's absolutely not backwards. When you develop software, first you build the infrastructure, and then you add in UI features. The things you think are missing (like search, some options, different views, a timezone field) are relatively easy to add once you have the infrastructure right. But if you work on those things first and don't have the right infrastructure, it's much more difficult to go back and fix it. Palm did it correctly. The bones of WebOS are fantastic. The flesh needs a bit more filling out, but this is much better than having a jiggly mess of flesh with few bones, ala Palm OS.
All I can say is that Palm must have been racing to get this device finished and in our hands. They've done an excellent job with what we've got, and it's a great platform for future improvements. I hope that we'll continue to get added functionality and performance improvements. 3rd party apps will help because it expands the available workforce.
An insightful and intelligent answer. Thanks!
I still consider the Pre a beta device (primarily because of the sorely lacking calendar and other PIM features) and I guess I can live with that because I knew what I was getting into and because of the superior web, email, and form factor. But I just hope it takes a shorter time for Palm to add Treo quality PIM apps and record search capability, than it took Apple to add Copy and Paste.