Editorial: Palm Pre's Fat Chance

[jcunwired]

Editorial: Palm Pre's Fat Chance : History Repeats Itself

[WizardHowl]

wow...what a debbie downer...

no killer app? isn't synergy itself enough of an "app" to make pre ahead of the game?

[mikah912]

Reader's digest version: Palm is doomed because its competitors will steal the best features of the Pre.

Oh, and the author says the Pre "may be better than my Blackberry Curve."

Ok.

Look, simply aping features is not enough. On paper, there are lots of full touchscreen phones with full HTML browsers, media playing capabilities, and a simple icon-based menu. Some of them even have apps and visual voicemail. None of them are iPhones or diluting the iPhone brand.

It's about how well it's implemented. I've seen add-on Synergy clone features for Windows Mobile and Apple's "universal search", and they just aren't up to par with the Pre versions of these features, in my opinion.

[Aridon]

I think he does have a few good points.

Cloud and Synergy aren't really that revolutionary. If they had included true data like mp3 and video then yes but that would cost lots of $$ in storage and bandwidth.

They really haven't announced anything great with the app store and we are getting pretty close to release. Hopefully we have some decent apps that work well out of the gate but nothing has come from Palm's lips yet nor have we really seen a whole lot of buzz from app developers either. Perhaps due to NDAs but it is getting close to crunch time.

8gb of internal memory is pretty light when the Iphone is looking at 32gb. Sorry but bad decision here. Also no card reader to offset the limited memory. Not sure what they were thinking.


I do disagree on the target market. I don't think there is any one target but more or less a bunch of targets. People are going to switch for a variety of reasons. Perhaps AT&T's limitations, Iphone fatigue, Apple fatigue, plenty of verizon customers looking for something different, plenty of existing sprint subs looking for a good phone etc...

I don't see the Pre saving Sprint, there are going to be too many webos phones in to short of a period.

I do see it saving palm. They will have multiple styles, on multiple carriers by the end of the year. Unlike the Iphone.

[jcunwired]

There were some good points, the editorial was an interesting mix of features, optimism and a good bit of pessimism. One comment that screamed of glaring ****** for another platform, the mention of "lacks a killer platform" - so far nothing else can compare between design, user interaction and OS.

As for target market, I think it's all of the above. There is something in its functionality that would appeal to both business and personal users, as an organizer or just a fun device.

Killer app I will have to agree with, but we know it will come. Here at launch? Maybe not, but not long afterwards - buzz in development community is too enthusiastic to be pessimistic in this regard.

[cardfan]

I think he just shows his ignorance throughout the "review."

It's not Apple that needs to be concerned but folks like RIM, Microsoft, etc.

I don’t think it’s the business crowd. It could have been with some additional cloud implementation. Like what? Oh, maybe the file synchronization I mentioned earlier. Or integration with an online whiteboard or SharePoint collaboration
system. Instead, we have unified contacts, which is a nice start but hardly revolutionary and not even terribly needed in businesses using Exchange Server.

This is where he falters. He nails down why Apple isn't too threatened right now. I would say his bias with Blackberry dooms his whole review. RIM is dated. It's browser sucks. The Storm was terrible and an affirmation that they would need a totally new OS to make it work. I'd use a Centro over any RIM device which is telling. Sales may say otherwise at present, but give it time.

[abarrera]

boooooo!!! that article was LAME!

[wynand32]

Really, to me, he just raised questions, some of them valid, some of them simply premature. And, they won't be answered until the Pre's being handled and reviewed. Same as it was with the iPhone, and same as it is with any new product.

He's also obviously not followed things as closely, and he's not a social media user, apparently, and so the existence of so many other applications than what's currently listed on the Palm site (!) simply escapes his notice. I think he'll be surprised--heck, probably even _we'll_ be surprised--at the apps that are available at launch, not the least of which is because Palm has opened up the platform so much more than has Apple. There's so much more developers can do when they have access to all of the PIM information, for example.

I don't think it's a bad review, or even a negative review--it's just the result of Palm's reticence (understandable or not) in providing more information. I imagine this guy's review will be very different once the Pre's been released and once he's actually used it.

[jcunwired]

Hey, at least its press!

[hypocaffeinemia]

WebOS is the killer app for me.

I have a pos Sprint Mogul running WebOS. It can do everything, albeit slowly and laggy and a bit jerry-rigged. I was going to purchase an android-based device until the Pre was announced.

The fact I can do real web browsing + integrate my gmail, facebook, and work exchange + multitask was the clencher for me. I understand apps will be limited when it first comes out, but the main things I would use it for are there from Day 1. Everything else is just gravy.

[sir_mycroft]

It is not a review, he has never even touched a Pre:

"As I wasn’t at CES to actually put a Pre in my hand, I can’t describe to you how it feels."

What it is is market speculation. The reviewer says Palm doesn't have a market, but I think he is wrong. He kept defining those markets as either RIM or APPLE users. That is not Palm's market.

I have said this so many times I sound like a broken record even to myself, but, again, Palm does not need to capture iPhone or Blackberry users - they need to capture Motorola RAZR users. The smartphone market is expected to expand considerably when dumbphone users migrate to smartphones, and Palm just needs to capture a chunk of that expanding market to be a sucess.

[B-model]

artilce was weak ... but it also shows the though process of the general consumer / reviewer as the pre gets rolling. Pal / Sprint need to change the preception of the company / phone to make this launch successful. They can do that

[jbg7474]

Originally Posted by Aridon

Cloud and Synergy aren't really that revolutionary. If they had included true data like mp3 and video then yes but that would cost lots of $$ in storage and bandwidth.

I expect that you don't understand Synergy if you don't think it's revolutionary. This is integration across multiple data sources in a way that no one has attempted before (on a cell phone or even on a desktop application). It's not just unified contacts, or a unified email inbox. If that's all it was, sure, that wouldn't be all that revolutionary. It is like a web mashup applied to your PIM data. There are different views of the data, but each view is aware of all the data across various different data sources. Even MS Outlook doesn't come close to this level of integration.

It will be hard for Palm to market this properly, because it will take some time for users to have this in their hand to really understand the power of it. But I believe that Synergy will be the key thing about WebOS that will make you want another WebOS device (unless all you do with the Pre is make phone calls).

[jbg7474]

Originally Posted by hypocaffeinemia

WebOS is the killer app for me.

I have a pos Sprint Mogul running WebOS. It can do everything, albeit slowly and laggy and a bit jerry-rigged. I was going to purchase an android-based device until the Pre was announced.

The fact I can do real web browsing + integrate my gmail, facebook, and work exchange + multitask was the clencher for me. I understand apps will be limited when it first comes out, but the main things I would use it for are there from Day 1. Everything else is just gravy.

You have a Sprint Mogul running WebOS??? Can you clarify that statement? I think you meant to say that you have Windows Mobile but you typed WebOS instead. But maybe you're a hacker extraordinaire and you actually have WebOS running on your phone.

[hparsons]

Originally Posted by jbg7474

I expect that you don't understand Synergy if you don't think it's revolutionary. This is integration across multiple data sources in a way that no one has attempted before (on a cell phone or even on a desktop application). It's not just unified contacts, or a unified email inbox. If that's all it was, sure, that wouldn't be all that revolutionary. It is like a web mashup applied to your PIM data. There are different views of the data, but each view is aware of all the data across various different data sources. Even MS Outlook doesn't come close to this level of integration.
...
.

This is so "different", that I think a lot of folks (even here) don't understand the concept.

As apps are written that take advantage of it, there are going to be more and more companies that say "why didn't I think of that".

[Outrigger]

He does raise many good points, but I do see that it would be lost in a Palm forum. Sometimes, people just have tunnel vision because they device they're dying to get their hands on get critisized.

I've had a Curve, and I don't believe its better than the Pre, for ME. Like everything else, it comes down to whats important to you. Businesses don't buy the Blackberry for its crappy browser, everyone knows that.

Write up the same article about the iphone back in 2007 in an Apple forum, you'll get the same responses you get here. His article did make me thing, but I'm still getting the Pre, however, majority of consumer aren't geeks like the ones on this board, they have a different mentality. They don't go buy a new phone whenever a new phone pops up, they might not even buy a new phone when their contract expires....

[cardfan]

Originally Posted by sir_mycroft

It is not a review, he has never even touched a Pre:

"As I wasn’t at CES to actually put a Pre in my hand, I can’t describe to you how it feels."

What it is is market speculation. The reviewer says Palm doesn't have a market, but I think he is wrong. He kept defining those markets as either RIM or APPLE users. That is not Palm's market.

I have said this so many times I sound like a broken record even to myself, but, again, Palm does not need to capture iPhone or Blackberry users - they need to capture Motorola RAZR users. The smartphone market is expected to expand considerably when dumbphone users migrate to smartphones, and Palm just needs to capture a chunk of that expanding market to be a sucess.

All the main players will capture that dumbphone market that will continue to transition to the smartphone world.

Put the shoe on the other foot. Who does Apple target? Who does RIM target? The same people Palm will target.. It's all one big pool.

Apple isn't exactly advertising to people who already use iphones...who could they be targeting with their ads about Apps?

Palm's market is everyone. Just like RIM and Apple. RIM appeals to those who want a productive qwerty device. Apple appeals to those who want an iPod/phone/browser/cheap apps. Palm will appeal to those who want (a bit of) both along with unique multitasking/synergy and on a carrier with cheaper plans.

[jcunwired]

I beg to differ - synergy and multitasking (on a smartphone) are indeed solutions to the difficulties we have in communicating in a human-multitasking, mobile environment.

[Zyphlin]

I think he GREATLY misrepresents how "simple" it will be for the iPhone to catch up to Multitasking. The current "push" system going in for 3.0 isn't really even that close, and I doubt you'd see anything greater than that in a year. And, even then, it sounds like from what Palm's saying that it'd take an entirely new architecure and possibly new hardware for it to handle true multitasking on the iPhone without killing battery.

I think having some kind of desktop sync, ala itunes, that would catalog all of your various media sources on your computer while also allowing you potential access to the amazon mp3 store and to the palm catalog would be amazingly helpful but doubtful to see.

I think he's also underselling the potential for Synergy which, if the philosophy it represents continues into other programs such as how it works with the fandango app, could be a HUGE killer app.

The ecology part is the only thing that worries me, and they were even talking about how that is a focus for them at the CES show I believe.

[cardfan]

Cobbling together a desktop app doesn't seem too terribly difficult if Palm wanted to do it. I would like the ability to browse for apps on the desktop, manage song lists, and manage the device. Having the ability to one click a video, kindle book, song, etc from amazon to my Pre would be great too.