Zdnet: Palm Pre: Five reasons to expect a homerun

[clevin]

Palm Pre: Five reasons to expect a homerun | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

BlackBerry created the smartphone category in the early part of this decade with the first thumboard, Palm briefly helped reinvent the smartphone with the Treo and its phone/email synergy, and then the iPhone brought the full Web and application experience to the smartphone. Now, the Palm Pre brings true multi-tasking to the smartphone. That, combined with current market forces and Palm’s mobile DNA, will make the Pre one of tech’s biggest success stories of 2009.

as I said all along, desktop-level multitasking is also what they regarded as the top revolutionary feature.

also as I said, zdnet also think the biggest contribution of iPhone is "full web". nothing else.

People, are you hyping pre for your friends? dont forget to emphasize the desktop level multitasking!, coz thats where it truly shines, and thats what makes it impossible for apple or anybody else to catch, at least for a year or two.

[StefanP]

while I do agree with you, I have to say that I think that for the fat middle, multi-tasking on a phone is not nearly as important as multi-tasking on the desktop.

[9 Inch Pre Niss]

Nice find. I really think in a year this phone is going to own a large share of the market. Or at least webOS phones in general.

[jewel]

Originally Posted by StefanP

while I do agree with you, I have to say that I think that for the fat middle, multi-tasking on a phone is not nearly as important as multi-tasking on the desktop.

You're making a general statement. What's your proof?

[jewel]

Originally Posted by 9 Inch Pre Niss

Nice find. I really think in a year this phone is going to own a large share of the market. Or at least webOS phones in general.

I agree. From the looks of it this OS will come a long way.

[Carioca_FL]

Originally Posted by jewel

You're making a general statement. What's your proof?

You don't need proof for one's opinion.

[jewel]

Originally Posted by Carioca_FL

You don't need proof for one's opinion.

That's not an opinion, it's a claim. Not unless he made a survey of the fat-middle's preferences.

[Kupe]

Originally Posted by StefanP

while I do agree with you, I have to say that I think that for the fat middle, multi-tasking on a phone is not nearly as important as multi-tasking on the desktop.

The beauty of true multi-tasking is when the user has no awareness that they're multi-tasking. Everything needed is up and running and the transition/integration between tasks is seamless. It's not the stop-then-start of the Palm OS or the iPhone - it's the near-instantaneous switching back and forth or the running in the background with sounds (like audio GPS turn directions) that the "fat-middle" will come to expect - like WM users have grown used to for years now.

[jonathan likes the pre]

Thanks for the cool article.

[B-model]

yes .. thanks OP

[DwightShrute]

good find clevin!! i agree 100% with zdnet and true multitasking is something i am itching to do. don't be fooled by what people say about wm being able to do it for sometime now...it is NOT the same thing!! it's slow, cumbersome and definitely NOT seamless!! bring on the pre!!

[fdezarra]

Originally Posted by StefanP

while I do agree with you, I have to say that I think that for the fat middle, multi-tasking on a phone is not nearly as important as multi-tasking on the desktop.

Opinion.

I hope you are right.

[dp135]

Nice article with a few things I had not thought about like the apps: "working with third-party developers is baked into Palm’s DNA" There sure are a lot of apps out there from what I saw when looking for my Palm TX.

[fdezarra]

sorry. wrong. I hope you are wrong and that everyone comes to appreciate just how important this feature is.

[jewel]

Originally Posted by fdezarra

Opinion.

I hope you are right.

Yeah. I missed that. He is making an opinion.

[Minsc]

Originally Posted by StefanP

while I do agree with you, I have to say that I think that for the fat middle, multi-tasking on a phone is not nearly as important as multi-tasking on the desktop.

I tend to agree with you. While multi-tasking is probably a big deal to us enthusiasts, does 90% of everyone else really care? (or get it?) Again, not counting the geeks, how many iPhone users out there are frustrated with their device because it's not doing appication-level multi-tasking?

I'm not suggesting that multi-tasking only benefits the geeks, because I think there's some usefulness there for everyone - but in reality I don't think it's something that's ever occurred to the "fat middle" to even be missing.

[asforme]

Just because the standard customer isn't clamoring for it now, doesn't mean it won't quickly become a necessity once it's avaliable. Nobody was missing the mouse and GUI in the days of DOS and the Apple II.

[Palmfood]

Originally Posted by Minsc

I tend to agree with you. While multi-tasking is probably a big deal to us enthusiasts, does 90% of everyone else really care? (or get it?) Again, not counting the geeks, how many iPhone users out there are frustrated with their device because it's not doing application-level multi-tasking?

I'm not suggesting that multi-tasking only benefits the geeks, because I think there's some usefulness there for everyone - but in reality I don't think it's something that's ever occurred to the "fat middle" to even be missing.

I'm sure the majority of the fat-middle don't even know what multi-tasking is.

[jbg7474]

Originally Posted by Minsc

I tend to agree with you. While multi-tasking is probably a big deal to us enthusiasts, does 90% of everyone else really care? (or get it?) Again, not counting the geeks, how many iPhone users out there are frustrated with their device because it's not doing appication-level multi-tasking?

I'm not suggesting that multi-tasking only benefits the geeks, because I think there's some usefulness there for everyone - but in reality I don't think it's something that's ever occurred to the "fat middle" to even be missing.

I think there are a lot of people who wish they had it on the iPhone. The best use case that I have heard is someone who starts playing music in Pandora, and then wants to check their email or look at Google maps. Music stops. The iPhone's great applications drive the desire to run more than one at a time.

The interesting thing is the difference between multi-tasking on WM as compared to webOS. There seem to be two main differences:
1. Management of tasks on WM is (I have heard) somewhat clunky. I haven't used it myself, but from what I've heard, you have to bring up Task Manager to find out what is running and close things out. I don't know how to switch between tasks, but it's not as clean and intuitive as webOS cards. So webOS makes management of multiple tasks clean and easy.

2. The Pre hardware is very substantial. Lots of RAM, serious processing capability, graphics core. I'm not sure if there are other smartphones out there with as much raw computing power. I've posted this link a dozen times, but if you're techie at all and you haven't read about the Pre's processor, read this article. It will get your heart pumping. Multi-tasking on PCs wasn't much fun until the hardware could handle it.

[mobileman]

Originally Posted by DwightShrute

good find clevin!! i agree 100% with zdnet and true multitasking is something i am itching to do. don't be fooled by what people say about wm being able to do it for sometime now...it is NOT the same thing!! it's slow, cumbersome and definitely NOT seamless!! bring on the pre!!

The Blackberry multitasks well, yet nobody ever says "I want a blackberry for the multitasking".

I'm looking forward to it, but I bet most people wont even know what multitasking means.