[jcunwired]

OK, so maybe its because I just finished watching another incredible episode of Season 7 of 24, or maybe its because like you I'm passionate about Palm Pre's success, but after reading this latest blog I'm wondering just how scared the Apple fanboys are. If I were Jack Bauer I might think that another zealot is calling upon the masses to do whatever it takes to kill the Pre, while on the other hand the author makes the point frequently discussed in these forums - that competition is good.

An excerpt:

Let’s cut around the hype and get to the point. I’m hounding the release of the Palm Pre the same way I hounded the iPhone from January 2007 until that historic day in June. Maybe not with the same passion and intensity, but I’m definitely checking in on a daily basis to see what’s going on in with the Palm Pre. When this product drops, it better be worth the hype.

and another:

Assuming people actually buy the Palm Pre, begin loving it, developers leave the iPhone platform and flock to Palm’s Mojo SDK framework, and Palm gets through the undeniable bugs, mobile carrier pitfalls, and gross outcry from consumers about whatever issues the masses choose, they still have to compete with Apple. Who, as CEO Steve Jobs put it, “is at least 5 years ahead of the curve.” However, when compared to Palm, Apple seems more like 10 or 15 years ahead of the curve. And putting Apple in an even better situation, the Palm Pre is the iPhone’s only real competition for the foreseeable future.

The Palm Pre: Hope or Hype? | MacBlogz - One Stop Apple News

Discuss.

[jcunwired]

Increasingly, from the developer network down to consumers, its looking like the Pre is going to be an incredible hit, with a surprising number of users from all carriers coming aboard Sprint for the Pre. Time will of course tell all, but in the meantime I think there's a wave of new innovation sweeping the smartphone industry that we as fans have not begun to grasp.

[wynand32]

I would love to know precisely how Apple is "5 years [or more] ahead of the curve"? I mean, sure, the iPhone has a nice interface (to an extent), but it's lacking functionality that's available in a number of other platforms. 3.0 just gets it caught up with some, and not all, of that functionality.

It has a nice app store, but of course not really more applications--both Palm OS and Windows Mobile have as many, and I'd wager that they both have a better selection of real applications compared to the iPhone. Has anyone seen a fart app for either the Palm or WM, let alone 75?

Certainly, the iPhone is a tremendous success, but that can't really be measured chronologically in such a way. I don't think it's very difficult to conceive at all that someone could release a device that could catch up with and pass the iPhone. I'm not sure that it will be Palm with the Pre, as much as I'd like to see it, only because Palm doesn't have the financial strength. Maybe after a year with a very successful Pre and a stock price over $12 they could do so with the Pre 2 or somesuch.

Heck, I think even Microsoft could do it with Windows Mobile 7. Windows 7 stands poised, in my opinion, to steal back whatever little thunder OS X has stolen because of the Vista debacle. I predict that Windows will be back over 90% market share, and OS X back under 7%, in a few years. So, I believe that Microsoft is entirely capable of producing a competitive product that leverages its strength in the enterprise.

Boy, I can't stand Apple fans. I like my MacBook Pro fine, I guess, but I hate researching things about it. So many Apple fans are just like this, and Leftist to boot. A pox on the lot of them.

Let's go, Palm. Release the Pre, will you, so we can all buy it and kick some Apple ****.

[hparsons]

I would love to know precisely how Apple is "5 years [or more] ahead of the curve"? I mean, sure, the iPhone has a nice interface (to an extent), but it's lacking functionality that's available in a number of other platforms. 3.0 just gets it caught up with some, and not all, of that functionality.

Anyone that says anything in the IT industry is "5 years ahead of the curve":

1. Doesn't really understand "the curve"
2. Is just lying
3. Is caught up in their own hyperbole
4. Is named Jobs (oops, redundant with #3)

[Derek Kessler]

Anyone that says anything in the IT industry is "5 years ahead of the curve":

1. Doesn't really understand "the curve"
2. Is just lying
3. Is caught up in their own hyperbole
4. Is named Jobs (oops, redundant with #3)

5. Owns a time machine.

[jbg7474]

Increasingly, from the developer network down to consumers, its looking like the Pre is going to be an incredible hit, with a surprising number of users from all carriers coming aboard Sprint for the Pre. Time will of course tell all, but in the meantime I think there's a wave of new innovation sweeping the smartphone industry that we as fans have not begun to grasp.

Absolutely agree with this. Even if the Pre is not the commercial success we all hope that it will be, it has already changed the perception of what can be done on a smartphone. All future smartphones will benefit from the Pre--Palm has moved the bar.

[Reeves]

Apple 10 or 15 years ahead of the curve? Uh, no.

2-2.5 sounds about right, but as always happens, other OSes catch up. Palm OS was similarly ahead of its time, but having such a distinct look, feel, and form factor means you kinda stand still, and time will catch up.

[disc]

Anyone that says anything in the IT industry is "5 years ahead of the curve":

1. Doesn't really understand "the curve"
2. Is just lying
3. Is caught up in their own hyperbole
4. Is named Jobs (oops, redundant with #3)

5. Owns a time machine.

That's impossible. Time machines are at least five years down the road.

[prereferee]

To be honest, the only place Apple seems 5 years ahead of the curve with the iPhone is marketing. The key to the iPhone was the packaging, all the various technologies were pretty much all pre-existing in one form or another elsewhere, they just put it together and made it look nice.

Let Apple feel years ahead of the curve if they want. The stagnation that such an attitude brings can be extremely dangerous and allow competition to both catch and surpass you (assuming you were actually ahead in the first place). Especially competition you have already written off. It is precisely this hubris that caused Apple's doldrums in the 1990s.

[sleepyEDB]

Time will of course tell all, but in the meantime I think there's a wave of new innovation sweeping the smartphone industry that we as fans have not begun to grasp.

I agree with this statement. Even as an avid fan of the Centro, I dismissed the Pre as just another smartphone...that was, until I watched the demo in the CES presentation. Seeing true mutlitasking spanning several applications and types of media all while preserving the flow of 'what you were doing' and who you were interacting with was truly eye-opening.

Now if I, a current Palm user, had to see it before believing, imagine how stubborn some of the more diehard fans of other (i)phones will be to convert. But once they see the light, the bar is raised and the industry is changed.


sleepy

[pilot1000]

... but after reading this latest blog I'm wondering just how scared the Apple fanboys are.

Why would an Apple "fanboy" be scared of the Pre? Will its success somehow cause their iPhone to vanish or quit working? Is the Pre going to attack them? Even assuming it is wildly successful, Apple will be in the phone business for a long time, and app developers will continue to develop for it.

And also, not all Apple fans are like they are portrayed on this site. I think many of Apple's products are great, and would consider myself an Apple fan (but not a "fan boy" as portrayed in some posts here). However, I will get a Pre if possible ... if not possible, then maybe an iPhone. I typically look for the best technology and in some cases that's an Apple product and in other cases, it's not. For example ... I got the original Pilot 1000, because it was the best tech at the time.

[Protagonist]

Why would an Apple "fanboy" be scared of the Pre? Will its success somehow cause their iPhone to vanish or quit working? Is the Pre going to attack them? Even assuming it is wildly successful, Apple will be in the phone business for a long time, and app developers will continue to develop for it.

And also, not all Apple fans are like they are portrayed on this site. I think many of Apple's products are great, and would consider myself an Apple fan (but not a "fan boy" as portrayed in some posts here). However, I will get a Pre if possible ... if not possible, then maybe an iPhone. I typically look for the best technology and in some cases that's an Apple product and in other cases, it's not. For example ... I got the original Pilot 1000, because it was the best tech at the time.

I think that is healthy attitude to take.

But unfortunately many people tie their whole identity into the products they chose to consume or not to consume. It is sad, but I am sure you will recognize it almost everywhere you look online. Xbox users feeling the need to ally themselves against PS3 owners, fans of Ford trucks denigrating Chevy, on and on. The zealotry of some Mac users and the zealotry with which some people oppose them is just one symptom of the success of corporate marketing and the emptiness of some people's lives.

[pilot1000]

Unfortunately, you're right. And I'm not like that ...

Unlocked Blackberry 8900 - Macbook Pro SSD

Blackberrys stink! Die, RIM, DIE!

Oops, my true colors are showing.

[wynand32]

I think that is healthy attitude to take.

But unfortunately many people tie their whole identity into the products they chose to consume or not to consume. It is sad, but I am sure you will recognize it almost everywhere you look online. Xbox users feeling the need to ally themselves against PS3 owners, fans of Ford trucks denigrating Chevy, on and on. The zealotry of some Mac users and the zealotry with which some people oppose them is just one symptom of the success of corporate marketing and the emptiness of some people's lives.

It's called cognitive dissonance, or mental discomfort over holding two competing or contradictory ideas. For marketing folks, it means that people look to justify their purchasing decisions--they don't like thinking that maybe they made a mistake.

The more insecure a person (either inherently, or about given purchases), the greater the cognitive dissonance they feel over their decisions. Thus, some people go to sometimes surprising lengths to defend their decisions against the alternatives. Joining others in denigrating the competition is just one manifestation.

Apple has taken the practice of capitalizing on the phenomenon to another level entirely. That's why they make all of their events "closed" and create a sort of elitist, cliquish environment around their products and brand. When you buy an Apple product, they say, you've joined a superior group--so, feel good about yourself and your Apple purchase.

It's brilliant, really, from a marketing perspective. It's also why so many insecure people are the strongest Apple fans, and why they spend so much time bashing other products. It makes them feel more secure in their own lives.

[jcunwired]

Good post above. Add to that this thought - for two years everybody has been telling you that "you have the best there is" (including the hype behind Apple), and suddenly something else comes along, making yours second best. The natural order of cognitive dissonance is for the individual to think that he/she is also second best. Hence, panic.

[Protagonist]

Unfortunately, you're right. And I'm not like that ...



Blackberrys stink! Die, RIM, DIE!

Oops, my true colors are showing.

haha yeah they do, they just stink less then all the other options!

[cardfan]

Probably doesn't feel too elitish when you see your life preserver selling for 99 or at walmart of all places. Or when a 13yr old wins the prize for the billionth download.

[Pearl_Diva]

I honestly never thought of the iPhone as an elitist, exclusive phone, although I know lots of other people did. The first one was to some degree, due to price, but I just viewed it as the gadget I needed to try out, LOL!

But the 2nd one, anyone with a credit card or even $100-$200 in cash to spend, and half way decent credit could have likely gotten one.

[wynand32]

I honestly never thought of the iPhone as an elitist, exclusive phone, although I know lots of other people did. The first one was to some degree, due to price, but I just viewed it as the gadget I needed to try out, LOL!

But the 2nd one, anyone with a credit card or even $100-$200 in cash to spend, and half way decent credit could have likely gotten one.

Ah, but that's the beauty of the Apple marketing machine. Note that I didn't say it was "exclusive." You don't have to be superior to join the Apple club, but once you do...

Now, certainly, there are folks who buy Apple products specifically because they find them (the products) to be superior. Or, like you, just because they're the new, cool gadget.

But those folks, in my experience, don't tend to focus on how much better Apple products are than the competition. They're too busy getting work done to write blog posts and articles about how the Palm Pre will suck because it's not made by Apple.

Confident people don't tend toward cognitive dissonance the way insecure people do.

[dbmgreen]

Boy, I can't stand Apple fans. I like my MacBook Pro fine, I guess, but I hate researching things about it. So many Apple fans are just like this, and Leftist to boot. A pox on the lot of them.

God your so right. Lying around my house are lots of apple products including a macbookpro, an older powerbook, an emac, 3 ipods, even an iPod Touch (which I swapped my iPhone for). You know they all crash. They all have their little glitches and things they refuse to do. Not to mention the lack of software and compatibility too.

I'm quite comfortable with terminal, I have bootcamp running with winXP, But whenever I need to do something like upgrade the firmware on a peripheral or load maps on my navman, set up some new device. I resort to getting out an old dell laptop to do it. It's just easier. I fail to see why Microsoft don't make a bigger deal of this side of the coin.

They are attractive reasonably well made (really well marketed!!) products, but they are NOT the be all and end all of the tech industry.

It'll be interesting to see where the company ends up now that Jobs wont be around anymore.