5 Reasons why the Pre will not Prevail

[jonathan likes the pre]

How will Apple tack on multitasking all the way to the original iPhone, which they still support? They can't just decide iPhones will have it, phones need to be built to multitask (battery, cpu, apps are WRITTEN to exist and operate in the background).

It'll be a disaster. I'd love to see them try.

[meyerweb]

Originally Posted by Aridon

4. Who exactly are they targeting with the release? The fat middle that wouldn't know multi-tasking if it sat on their face? Certainly not media users since they only include 8gb and most hard core phone users are used to more memory either through SD expansion or higher internal memory.

I've seen this type of comment a lot lately, and I think it's misguided. Does the fat middle "know" what multi-tasking is? I think they might. We're not talking about selling this phone to housewives who sit around and watch soap operas all day and American Idol at night. The buyers of smart phones are relatively sophisticated, and they understand Windows and/or Mac OS enough to know the value of being able to swap between multiple activities quickly and easily.

Even if it IS true that they don't understand the word "multi-tasking," I think people will quickly come to appreciate the ability to start downloading a web page or email attachment, and then check their calendar or open another email while the download continues in the background. Or to quickly check their calendar while typing an email, and then jump back to the email without having to close or re-open anything. To say nothing of being able to listen to Pandora at the same time they're writing an email or reading a web page.

[Zorro1]

People who write do that for a good reason: no other marketable skills. The naysayers in history are nearly innumerable, you'll see the lists around. Those who said the computer was useless, that Columbus wouldn't discover new land since it had all been discovered, etc. etc. Companies that have NOT reinvented themselves from time to time are the ones that fail. GM, for recent example. While those who do become raging successes. I'm in the accounting biz, and when Quickbooks first hit the market, we all laughed at the idea that a person with no training would keep books! Well, sadly, all those ignorant folks are now doing QB's, like it or not. For the accountants who just ignored that and kept laughing, they're a bit thin on clients now. For those who finally decided to embrace it come what may, found niches in the market that kept us going.

Give Palm credit for reinvention, even tho' we hate them leaving the old ways behind. Apple is perhaps the best example of all! Are they in the computer biz? Or the music biz? Or the phone biz? I bet the last two are 85% of their revenue now.

[no1smartphone]

Originally Posted by northy014

Just think, when Apple do it, it'll be completely different from all the ways people have done it before .

I also think that even when it becomes fairly apparent that people want multitasking on their smartphones, it''ll be a while before Apple actually gets around to doing it. After all, their push notifications system has taken them about 9 months to develop, and the server capacity required will be enormous. I can't imagine that they'd just throw away this investment.

I think the main announcement for Apple will be the PUSH system and then watch Blackberry stock fall - this will be a typical market knee jerk reaction by traders.

[west3man]

Originally Posted by wynand32

"iPhone killer" are two words that guarantee readers. In spite of Palm making it clear that they are not positioning directly "against" Apple, the media will continue to take that tack because it generates the most readership. Particularly at this point, when the Pre hasn't even been released yet.

Well, Palm does say that it's not against Apple, but its actions seem desgined to antagonize or provoke Apple. They're like kids in the back seat. When the parents tell the brother to stop touching his sister, he holds his finger half an inch from her face and says, "I'm NOT touching her!"

Palm grabbed Ruby (although I don't know what his relationship with Apple was, at the time). Palm mixed some of Apple's sauce with their own "special sauce" in the way the device was designed/implemented. They set the device up to work with iTunes through what some knowledgeables refer to as a "hack." They arranged for their device's debut to take place just before an expected Apple event/announcement. And, finally, despite their retractions, their most vocal representative publicly and repeatedly compared the Palm product to the Apple product in ways that, increasingly, seemed antagonistic.

Oh yeah, and then there's Palm's all but invisible attempt to REACH the so-called "fat middle" that they say makes Apple less of a threat to them.

[no1smartphone]

Palm need to run one of those PC v Mac type adverts.

The Palm Pre guy is listening to music, surfing the web, and using IM and Calendar at the same time trying to book a concert with friends.

Whilst the Iphone guy is surfing the web and writing down tour dates on a piece of paper and then closing his browser and call his friends.

Something that anyone can instantly understand what multi-tasking is. I am sure many people may not think they understand the term but I bet when they see it happening they will know what it is.

[lopezpm]

Originally Posted by no1smartphone

Palm need to run one of those PC v Mac type adverts.

The Palm Pre guy is listening to music, surfing the web, and using IM and Calendar at the same time trying to book a concert with friends.

Whilst the Iphone guy is surfing the web and writing down tour dates on a piece of paper and then closing his browser and call his friends.

Something that anyone can instantly understand what multi-tasking is. I am sure many people may not think they understand the term but I bet when they see it happening they will know what it is.

Actually the iPhone guy would be on a call with his friend and browsing the web looking at the concert dates at the same time. Because it can do both. That's a pretty important multi task.

[titansluvpre]

Umm I just have one relatively easy question.

If the PRE will not Prevail....then why would AT&T of all companies want this phone when Sprints exclusive contract runs out???

Why would you want to carry a phone on your company that if it succeeds would be in direct competition with your flagship phone the Iphone? Could it possibly be that AT&T even believes that this might be the phone to really put a dent in Apple's stranglehold of pda's?(Which I hate calling an Iphone a pda).

[fwinst]

Originally Posted by Aridon

3. 8gb? Seriously, memory is cheap, the Iphone is prepping 16gb and 32 gb versions no reason we should be stuck with 8bg at $199. 16gb should have been the minimum.
[/b]

Not to beat this incredibly dead horse too much more, but I think this point is probably the biggest miscue with the Pre. If you can't have an SD slot, then make sure you've got plenty of memory for apps, music, games, and movies. Given the range and variety of things available for download to smartphones, this is really a pitiful amount of space. It's also important for people migrating from Treos to realize that they will be taking up space just by brining this phone's applications up to the basic standards you enjoy now (ie video, different types of calculators, classic programs, etc). Individually these applications might not take that much space. However, when you start adding the cumulative space, it might account for more of the approx 7.5 gb available than you'd like.

[fushigi]

FYI, the same article is posted at InfoWorld: Five reasons the Palm Pre won't prevail | Mobilize - InfoWorld

The comments, though, are not shared between InfoWorld & PC World.

[no1smartphone]

Originally Posted by lopezpm

Actually the iPhone guy would be on a call with his friend and browsing the web looking at the concert dates at the same time. Because it can do both. That's a pretty important multi task.

Using IM and Calendar at the same time and listening to some music whislt an RSS reader scrolls the latest headlines?

[imthatguy704]

That's the way of the world. Everybody has an opinion. No matter how good you think your actions and/or products are there's always somebody that is incapable of visualizing the good. It's easy for them to point out the bad when there is an enormous amount good backing the Pre. To me it's great publicity. Any kind of recognition is fuel for Palm. Palm might not appeal to the masses..............but the Pre will.

[cary328is]

Originally Posted by jbg7474

However, the author could have (should have) recognized that Jon Rubinstein is a significant heavyweight. This is not a startup from someone who might not know what they're doing.

+100000

The Pre, as he has stated MANY times, is just the beginning of a whole new line of Palm products. With the potential of webOS and the growing amount of apps/developers - there is no telling how far this will take the *new* Palm. I can't even fathom what kinds of ideas they have for their touchstone line - it's so exciting to be part of this rebirth. People have to get over this Pre vs iPhone thing. I predict they will both continue to be successful in their own rights, both evolving and changing based on what the other does - or just by what users want in general. Pre comes out, iPhone version 3 comes out, Pre 2 comes out, iPhone version 4 comes out so on and so forth.