[west3man]

Whenever I hear about technology-dependent projects that last for YEARS, I always wonder how the creators feel about (and deal with) the fact that the technology they used at the beginning of the project may be outdated by the end of it.

From what I understand, WebOS and the Pre have been in development for a couple years or so. Maybe the release date secrecy is due to Palm's efforts to include the latest hip, new technology - the kind of thing that will take them from the "cutting edge" to the "bleeding edge."

Twitter's been around for a little while, but has become much more popular in recent months. Maybe that's one of multiple items they're trying to incorporate into this platform and device before launch.

What do you think?

[ImmaSlave4U]

The Palm Pre is not delayed. They have always said that it will be out by July.

[dwhitman]

I think they need to ship this puppy ASAP. And I think they know it.

When they announced, they said "first half of 2009", and I think that was their actual estimate of how long it would take to bring to market, and all indications are they're going to hit that window.

The announcement itself was timed not because they wanted to announce 6 months before shipping, but because CES was the best venue to make the announcement, and it only comes around once per year.

They've announced at least one bleeding edge improvement that WON'T make the initial release (Flash support). I really don't think they can afford to delay release to add a feature not originally intended for the initial release, and doubt that they are doing so.

IMHO, YMMV.

[west3man]

The Palm Pre is not delayed. They have always said that it will be out by July.

If it could've or would've been out sooner without trying to add the latest and the greatest, then it was delayed for that reason.

If you're not interested in speculating or considering these things, cool.

[NM08SRT8]

The Palm Pre is not delayed. They have always said that it will be out by July.

June.. July is Q3, 2009..

[ImmaSlave4U]

June.. July is Q3, 2009..

By July means before/by July. That means no later than June 30th.

If it could've or would've been out sooner without trying to add the latest and the greatest, then it was delayed for that reason.

If you're not interested in speculating or considering these things, cool.

I'd start speculating if June 30th came and gone and we went w/o a launch. Until then, it's on schedule as originally announced.

[KrazyRogue]

I'd start speculating if June 30th came and gone and we went w/o a launch. Until then, it's on schedule as originally announced.

I think they'd be smart enough to officially announce a delay in June if in fact it is delayed. They know we are waiting impatiently and we will kill them for that.
But I doubt that will happen.

[fwinst]

I think when a company says something like "1st half of 2009", at the beginning of 2009, it means that they have the basic product completed yet it needs to be finalized and tested. It means they will release the product as soon as possible within their release timeframe.

As for delays, I believe the initial posts intent was to say that IF Palm held back this phone due to a desire to keep adding things to make this a more cutting edge phone, and in doing so let time slip away, then they delayed its release. I don't think the intent of the post was to say that the "1st half of 2009" date would be missed.

[adjmcloon]

I always thought "first half of 2009" meant the first half of 2009, a la by June 29th. But then, the sky is blue in my world.

[EvilMonkey#WN]

I always thought "first half of 2009" meant the first half of 2009, a la by June 29th. But then, the sky is blue in my world.

Ah, there are 30 (not 29!) days in June, so "first half of 2009" encompasses all the time until the very last tick of June 30th (right before midnight of July 1st).

Of course, if one REALLY wants to get technical, Palm and Sprint actually have another day and half, until noon on July 2nd (adjusting for time zones and DST accordingly, of course). Why? Well, 2009 has 365 days in it, so the "first half" of 2009 will have 182.5 days. But the first 6 months of 2009 (January 1 through the end of June 30) only include 181 days. So this loophole would buy them another 36 hours!

[EvilMonkey#WN]

So a person says "first half of 2009" when he means end of June? I don't think so. A person (or a company) says "first half of 2009" when they think that something should happen by April or May.

Dude, I work in the tech industry. When a product is promised in a certain time range, that usually means that it will ship at or near the very END of that range -- if you're lucky and no major problems cause the schedule to slip. When I first heard Palm say "first half of 2009", my first thought was to hope they could actually make that June 30 deadline. Anything that beats that deadline is just gravy.

[jbg7474]

I think the OP was talking about why 1H09 vs. 1H08. I doubt that there was very much in the way of new tech that changed the path of WebOS or the Pre. Perhaps HTML5 or the explosion of Javascript (thanks to Google and Chrome). But they essentially didn't start the Pre until Rubinstein got there (I think). Twitter is not really new technology, it's cobbling together existing technology in a different way.

Having been involved in long term technology projects most of my career, there are things that change in the course of development that make you adjust. Smart people plan for these things. But mainly I think all new technology development takes quite a bit of time, so you can usually see what's coming and plan for it. Compute power is a good example. You might plan to make use of hardware that doesn't exist yet because you know the next generation will arrive in another year or so.

[ncaa68]

the fiscal calendar Q2 ends on July5

[eekinsman]

I don't know, maybe they recently had to retool the hardware after they decided to fire the guy on the Pre design team who, while sitting around the conference table, exclaimed, "Hey I've got it, lets really blow em away and give the Pre fully double the memory of the LifeDrive!" Seriously (not really) maybe they figured they couldn't release, with a straight face, a ground breaking smartphone with only 7.4 GB on board and no expansion. So maybe memory is being retooled.

Maybe the release date secrecy is due to Palm's efforts to include the latest hip, new technology - the kind of thing that will take them from the "cutting edge" to the "bleeding edge."

[Pearl_Diva]

So a person says "first half of 2009" when he means end of June? I don't think so. A person (or a company) says "first half of 2009" when they think that something should happen by April or May. Especially when your main competitor does their new product launches in June which will overshadow your launch.

I'm hoping for July. They announce it on June 12 then make people wait another few weeks. I think the 3G was released in July.

So if Palm is on the border(say they actually do wait until June 30), they still release before the other phone. But it will still be too close then. The May release would be so much better.

[MajorHavoc]

It's not simply "ok, send the phones to Sprint"!!!
Palm and Sprint are developing sales and marketing plans, promotional materials, developer programs, print ads, commercials, hardware, software, etc., etc., etc., etc!!!
The fact that we will see this product 6 months after announcement at CES is no small feat!

[hparsons]

So a person says "first half of 2009" when he means end of June? I don't think so. A person (or a company) says "first half of 2009" when they think that something should happen by April or May. Especially when your main competitor does their new product launches in June which will overshadow your launch.

Huh??? How do you figue? A company says "First half of 2009" when they mean sometime in the first half of 2009.

If they mean April or May, they would say "April or May."

This stuf isn't rocket science.

[GolpherZX]

NCAA- Fiscally they are well beyond 1H2009.

I think that I'm going to have to side a little bit with the OP on this one. I think that since Pandora was able to write their app in 3 days was kind of the bar for app development. To get to the latest and greatest craze on the web - twitter, and to have an app developed to work on the Pre, that could be very helpful in the release. Obviously flash won't be there when the release happens, so don't count on that one...

I think the more apps that they have at launch the better at this point. Only one way to do that, create hype, release the SDK, and have apps ready to go.

As I'm writing this, has anyone actually seen their "App Catalog" yet? I can't say I recall seeing it, but that would need to be one of the big things for the device.

[cscoot03]

Trying not to be useless, I was on phone w/AT in this last half hour & was told AT was emailed yesterday that the 1st Pre release is May 17th & 2nd release is June 29th.
I'm on Case for 2 so I keep contact w/Sprnt. (So as I hear hopefully what I print Is True.)

[cscoot03]

In response to theupdate is a new phone, I agree using the Treo Pro as the update for the 800 which means all the Palms are included I update comparison.
You know how it is : open up your wallets please.