[cardfan]

no. What will change my opinion of Palm in general is a consistent run of earnings. Or at the very least indicators of grown interest from the buying public. And i think 1.3.5 is not something that is going to make people run to a sprint store to buy a pre. Maybe it lays the ground work but i view the market a bit different. I think WebOS will be around but of limited success and i don't think 1.3.5 changes that. What will have an impact will be real games, Apps that do what people want, a robust facebook app, fixing the apps like music player that handle media as media is what the iphone was built on and does well. Plus it's gotta be released a lot bigger then a couple carriers in 6 months. Also email and document support that exceeds blackberry would help too. In general webos 2.0 stuff i guess. And much better form factors like keyboardless and horizontal sliders. Deep down i think Palm needs to be bought buy someone with enough money to fund it's growth at a stronger rate. Don't see an ideal candidate at the moment. But i think fixing 1.3.5 is good but not remotely going to sway people that didn't want to by a pre yesterday.

I agree with some of that. But you have to go back to basics. Target market is entry level users...and by that i mean people who have not used smartphones before. CES once again should give them some buzz, but months of silence shouldn't happen again. Time for some real marketing show and tell. Can't wait til later when Apple starts their hype going.

One new form factor with big high rez screen that feels high end. When you pay the same data plan for all high end phones, Palm needs a competitor in that regard. Look at Round Robin to know that each offers that big screen. Upcoming phones only reinforce that notion. This isn't about not offering the current Pre & Pixi, but offering a third choice. Palm has already opened the door a crack when they went with two. May as well be three.

Palm needs an ***** proof path for these entry level users to set up their phone. From setting up their phones, doing full local backup/sync/restore, easy as pie media syncing, etc. Basically putting yourself in the shoes of someone totally ignorant, not a techie, and with a new Pre. Now what would you expect that person to do? Fear of the unknown is the biggest deterrent to wannabe smartphone buyers. So they'll likely buy an iphone or blackberry instead.

This is all the basics before worrying about gaming and whatnot. I've no interest in gaming, but at least a physical kb makes it more viable to me than say..a phone with no buttons like an iphone.

The app market has changed so much. No longer are they apps you put on to modify existing core apps or provide new functions. It's a throwaway market. But Palm needs these old time apps since they got throwaway pegged. Being able to modify the calendar for instance or install a new calendar app are the type of apps i want. It's two markets in one..throwaway and function.

I don't see carriers being much a problem. Other smartphone companies are showing record profits even in a recession now rebounding market. Palm has to reverse that trend and show increased sales next quarter.

Also, once again, it seems Sprint is the ideal suitor for a new Palm device. No Droid (verizon), no Nexus (tmobile), no iphone (att). Just a Hero and Moment really as competition. Will Sprint ever figure things out?

[hparsons]

For me, at least, the 'Too many cards' error seems to have been taken care of. How about you guys? Are you still getting that with 1.3.5?

I haven't gotten it yet, but it's only been two days. But seriously, do you think it really matters to him? Don't you suspect that if it is resolved, the response would be "no big deal, it should never have been there anyway"?

[ToddK]

"I already spent a coupla nights on the couch last week when i sync'd an old yahoo account to the Pre, and all my old yahoo 'contacts' magically appeared in the Pre's contact list. "

Hey, Tiger! ...I didn't know you had a Pre?!? :-D

[rkkeller]

My update went fine but I keep looking for more SPEED increases and snappiness than anything.

For "my" use, I am really content with what the Pre does and how it does it overall. Just want a little zip.

[ToddK]

Re: too many cards...

I got it yesterday with 4 cards open - the 4th triggered it -

I leave Messaging, Calendar and Email running all the time - I had been running a variety of apps as a 4th open card, one at a time; Google Maps, Net2Streams Pro, AccuWeather, NewsRoom, etc. ...I was reading a story in the NYT app, and clicked on a story link, which tried to open a browser page, but I got the "too many cards" message. ;-(

As usual, closing the email app solves the problem, for a while - but, only for a while.

The phone began to slow to a crawl, and only a reset truly cleared the memory completely and returned the phone's "snappy-ness".

1.3.5 is still way, way better than 1.3.1 was... so, maybe 2.0 will fix it once and for all. ;-)

[Reeves]

Other smartphone companies are showing record profits even in a recession now rebounding market. Palm has to reverse that trend and show increased sales next quarter.

This is a biggie. I'm newly excited given recent indications, but if sales continue to slump in the next two quarters, it'll be obvious that a new game plan is needed, and I think offering a high-end WebOS handset and new marketing (as you already mentioned) will be key.

Also, once again, it seems Sprint is the ideal suitor for a new Palm device. No Droid (verizon), no Nexus (tmobile), no iphone (att). Just a Hero and Moment really as competition. Will Sprint ever figure things out?

Don' see where Sprint was ever in the wrong. They did the only advertising of the Pre that actually SHOWED THE OS in closeup and tried to explained what it did. I thought Bell's ads were way better than Sprint's or Palm's, but those don't seem to be working as far as sales go either. Dunno.

Remember that Sprint was being heralded for their smartphone lineup when, for a very brief time, they were the only US carrier with a WebOS handset AND Android handsets, in addition to top of the line WinMo and Blackberry handsets. It was inevitable that Verizon would catch up, but Sprint should feel no shame for grabbing the Moment and Hero. They're about to have a WiMax WinMo or Android phone too, and I think that may be the only thing that could possibly excite people about Windows Mobile at this point.

[dbdoinit]

Anybody else with a thought?

[sivan]

I haven't gotten it yet, but it's only been two days. But seriously, do you think it really matters to him? Don't you suspect that if it is resolved, the response would be "no big deal, it should never have been there anyway"?

What I meant to say is that fixing the lag between day views is a fairly small task, whereas addressing memory issues requires deeper work within webOS. So to the question of whether 1.3.5 strengthens one's confidence in webOS, the latter would be more indicative of a change.

As to whether it matters to me, I'm participating in a discussion. It matters this much

[igobytony]

Anybody else with a thought?

I'll try to chime in later when i have more time. If I'm feeling motivated to type that much, I've got some thoughts on it. Maybe not all original enough to warrant mention though...

[dbdoinit]

I'll try to chime in later when i have more time. If I'm feeling motivated to type that much, I've got some thoughts on it. Maybe not all original enough to warrant mention though...

Thanks Tony.

[shadavis08]

I think 1.3.5 sets up CES and the glory that WebOS will be with a fully functional GPU (I kind of felt like the Emperor from star wars when I typed that).

The GPU should mean everything is much smoother, and that games like NFS will be possible. If a native level SDK is also released, I think Apple will actually have to start playing some catch up to Palm's ideas.

the emporer died ya know ha ha !

[dbdoinit]

the emporer died ya know ha ha !

LOL. He might not have realized that!

[shadavis08]

well since the update my phone rocks and the web browser is so smooth and the links in web pages actually link to something else .... Wow I'm ready for the gpu now and animated gfi's and ......and and flash .... !!

[shadavis08]

LOL. He might not have realized that!

I just thought it was pretty funny the way he said it . And then I thought " wait a min. the emporer died " lol too funny

[dbdoinit]

well since the update my phone rocks and the web browser is so smooth and the links in web pages actually link to something else .... Wow I'm ready for the gpu now and animated gfi's and ......and and flash .... !!

Yep, the browser is kickin' now. Thanx Palm, for at least that.

[shadavis08]

I only got the " to many card " errors with the smartfelx patch and have not gotten it but a few times anyways so I guess the fact that I have not seen it says alot !

[Darth Mo#WN]

My opinion is that since there are more phones in the US than there are people, I think WebOS will find it's niche.

I don't understand the comparisons to the other giants. You can still have a successful company if you're not in the top 3, 4, or 5. There's a lot more to being successful besides selling the most or having the biggest market share. MS, Apple, and Google have virtually unlimited resources, so Palm just has to adjust their business model to account for the fact they will never be in the league of those three. I believe this is part of the reason they chose Sprint as the exclusive carrier for WebOS exclusivity. Focus on a smaller carrier and get it right before going to the big boys and risk getting buried by sheer volume. Also, in the middle of the worst economic time in history, choose the carrier with the cheapest plan.

Also, they chose to make their flagship device design based on what people felt were shortcomings on other manufacture's phones: no physical keyboard/keyboard too large, locked down OS, limited browser, phone itself too large/ugly, no interchangeable battery, intrusive notifications, and I'm sure there are more. And yes, all those things I mentioned are specific reasons for me that I chose the Pre, but I know I'm not alone. Is the Pre perfect? Nah, but neither is any other phone.

I don't have an doctorate in business, but I think Palm played the best card they could given their situation. 1.3.5 is bringing WebOS closer to it's potential; is it too late/not enough, we'll see. I suppose in the next month or so we'll have the full picture of WebOS and see how it stacks up. To me, 1.3.5 is an indication that Palm is ironing out the backend of WebOS and we may be close to having native support for the patches some of us love. It's looking more and more that those native features were intended, but instead disabled in fears of bogging the phone down past the point of frustrating operation...

[kirk0625]

Whats the max amount of cards you can have open after the update?

[swissarmy]

O.K. I will bite.. Lol.

I made the mistake & bought my wife a blackberry 8530 instead of a Pixi. I was worried with the hardware issue of my Pre. After using her Pre (I know I am a tech geek what can I say...) I really missed Webos. The web browsing after 1.3.5 is awesoooooome! Better than my ipod touch. I know realize that multi-tasking is much better on the Pre than the curve & I would gander than any other device out there. I for one will admit I am a mac guy not fan boy but do love the macs and have wanted an iphone. I am gaining confidence day by day that even if the iphone came to Sprint I would stay put. If Palm keeps cranking out the updates and making this a better & better device I will be locked!

Here is hoping to a good 2010 for Palm!! Just figure out the hardware thing...

By the way Blackberry was replaced today for a Pixi & my wife has not put it down for over 2 hours!! How sweet it is!!

[sivan]

I haven't used the 1.3.5 browser yet. Can someone describe how it was improved? Is it new features or just performance overall? I thought it was pretty fast as is before.