[Knucklehead]

We are a small minority of the smart phone user market. Most consumers want plug and play for a couple simple functions.

[Cantaffordit]

but every person (male or female) I know with an iPhone has at least one app from app store, so the issue is awareness that the Pre also has such a thing... More reasons for merit-ased ads that actually demonstrate tasks, instead of upeat image ads...

[Voodoochild]

I think thats partly why blackberrys sell so well. I want a phone that does as much as physcially possible. If they made a phone that would cook me dinner and do my laundry, I would buy it. But most people I know own blackberrys. They are great phones for contacting other people, and nothing else. This is what 95% of people I know want a phone for, calling, texting, and now that everyone has it, bbm. My main argument is, why not just get a dumb phone at that point and save 30 dollars a month.

Although I strongly dislike the iphone, at least people who get it actually get their data plans worth out of it. Where bbm is just an advanced messaging phone.

[Voodoochild]

I think thats partly why blackberrys sell so well. I want a phone that does as much as physcially possible. If they made a phone that would cook me dinner and do my laundry, I would buy it. But most people I know own blackberrys. They are great phones for contacting other people, and nothing else. This is what 95% of people I know want a phone for, calling, texting, and now that everyone has it, bbm. My main argument is, why not just get a dumb phone at that point and save 30 dollars a month.

Although I strongly dislike the iphone, at least people who get it actually get their data plans worth out of it. Where bbm is just an advanced messaging phone.

[Ikem07]

Lmao. Wow!!!

[malpha]

Why are we taking her to represent the general user more than us? Maybe she's just stupid. Sounds like it.

The iPhone commercials, the ones that feature the 10 billion things you can do on the phone? Definitely not targeting her. Jeez, think people.

[Mike20PR]

I just found out that it can slide out and reveals a keyboard!!!

why hasn't nobody told me?

smh....

[Sweetnessinfall]

what does SMH stand for?

[johncc]

what does SMH stand for?

get it?

[Sweetnessinfall]

got it

[sothrowd08]

I hate this phone. Where the hell are the buttons?

[jjeffcoat]

Did she look anything like the Palm Pre "creepy girl"? That would have been too funny...

[xtn]

My wife is the same way. Not dingi, she just totally doesn't care. She calls, texts, emails and surfs. That's all she wants to do. She doesn't care what the icons look like or how to arange them. She doesn't care whether the battery icon is a pictograph or a numeric readout. She doesn't care that I can stream our home cable tv to my phone anywhere. She doesn't care about any of the stuff this forum is about.

And I understand her position because quite frankly I don't give a rats *** what pattern silverware we have or what style the curtains are. I just want to be able to eat and keep the light out at night.

[CanadianPre]

I think this is pretty much par for the course.
The Palm Pre should be loaded with every feature that an iPhone or latest 2.1 Android has. Accessing the store should be about the only thing you need to show the customer.

The reality is that even though the Pre hardware is fantastic (for the most part), the OS is still feature incomplete (i.e. voice commands, etc).

The 'App Store' is nothing more than an icon on the screen and the real power sits with the Preware application and the patches. This just highlights the lack of OS features.

Questions that the average user won't think of....
- How do I get more icons on the screen at a time?
- Why can't I view email/pdf's in landscape mode?
- Why does the browser reload the web page every time I go back?
- Why can't I get the phone to show the full date/time/month at the top of the phone?
- Why can't the battery icon AND percentage be displayed on the header AND be in different colors?
- How do I tell the phone to rename the photo/video files to something I can understand?
- Where can I find that one application that will allow me to do all of the above and more than I can ever realize?

What the average user will do is go to a settings screen to turn on whatever they want and off whatever they don't want.

Problem is twofold :
....The Palm Pre should boot up with a prominent mini video to show where the settings screen is for customization AND the app store for more features. We're talking a 30 second clip.

.... The Palm Pre is lacking A TON of the easiest customization features....just look at the patches Preware allows you to access and ask yourself...why the heck do I need a patch to do any of the above stuff mentioned as a question.

Just some thoughts....as there are different levels of users...but Palm is dropping the ball by ensuring only the smarter ones actually use the Pre to the potential that Palm allows. (Pre is still WAY under utilized).

[lotuskid]

yeah this story is no surprise to me. Both my sisters and my brother in law have no idea about patches or homebrew. The barely even touch the app catalog. I do all the patching for them on their phones (satisfies my geek itch).

I met another friend who had a pre with no patches and he complained of terrible battery life.

so with my small user sample I agree that these folk represent the norm.

ultimately they just want a phone that works. What they want is what I like to call a dumbphone smartphone -Something with smartphone features but simple and bug free like dumbphones.

[r-nice]

Some people like simple things, can't fault them for that.

[Truckin-Geek]

yeah this story is no surprise to me. Both my sisters and my brother in law have no idea about patches or homebrew. The barely even touch the app catalog. I do all the patching for them on their phones (satisfies my geek itch).

I met another friend who had a pre with no patches and he complained of terrible battery life.

so with my small user sample I agree that these folk represent the norm.

ultimately they just want a phone that works. What they want is what I like to call a dumbphone smartphone -Something with smartphone features but simple and bug free like dumbphones.

Sounds like the iPhone when it first came out, huh? "This is your phone. It's pretty, it's happy, and it is what it is." And they added features and customization SLOWLY so as not to overload the non-geeks.
I think this is exactly what Palm is doing here. EXCEPT they let the techies have full access to the phone from the very beginning, something Stevie-J would have an apoplectic fit over.

So the non-techies buy this cool phone with a GREAT browser (wife: "YouTube is AWESOME on this thing!!") that just works. And if they just happen to be enlightened by their nerdy loved one on how flexible and customisable their new toy REALLY is...so much the better.

I think they're definitely taking a page from the Apple playbook, keep it slow, keep it steady, and don't overload the sheeple.

Be thankful they trust the enthusiasts with their baby!

[CanadianPre]

Sounds like the iPhone when it first came out, huh? "This is your phone. It's pretty, it's happy, and it is what it is." And they added features and customization SLOWLY so as not to overload the non-geeks.
I think this is exactly what Palm is doing here. EXCEPT they let the techies have full access to the phone from the very beginning, something Stevie-J would have an apoplectic fit over.

So the non-techies buy this cool phone with a GREAT browser (wife: "YouTube is AWESOME on this thing!!") that just works. And if they just happen to be enlightened by their nerdy loved one on how flexible and customisable their new toy REALLY is...so much the better.

I think they're definitely taking a page from the Apple playbook, keep it slow, keep it steady, and don't overload the sheeple.

Be thankful they trust the enthusiasts with their baby!

I'd say your half right but saying it all wrong.
A company doesn't 'do' customization, pieces at a time, they just do it at a time the customer wants 'it'. The trick is to add 'it' so that it is as easy as possible.

In Apples case, they have been adding as they 'see' fit and have been developing the market as they go. The Palm Pre has come out in the middle of a fairly developed expectation level from the customers. There is no reason they can't have a similar level of customization as Apples current phone 3GS. Heck, Palm touted the Pre as being better than a 3G, at least until the 3GS came out.

Android has no problem allowing people to do a TON of customization. The user will only do what he is aware and comfortable with. Right now the Palm Pre allows NONE, unless you have the technical expertise to figure it out....which by the very nature of this thread, appears to only include the people on this site. Everyone else can't customize because they don't know how or have the inclination to bother with it.

sigh....
All comes back to Palm's a little behind in features/customization when compared to the market. Word it how you like...they keep moving at this 'speed' and the next gen Android/iPhone will just push the Pre into the grave that much faster.

[Dissizit]

My wife is the same way. Not dingi, she just totally doesn't care. She calls, texts, emails and surfs. That's all she wants to do. She doesn't care what the icons look like or how to arange them. She doesn't care whether the battery icon is a pictograph or a numeric readout. She doesn't care that I can stream our home cable tv to my phone anywhere. She doesn't care about any of the stuff this forum is about.

And I understand her position because quite frankly I don't give a rats *** what pattern silverware we have or what style the curtains are. I just want to be able to eat and keep the light out at night.

What?! How?

[Kedar]

Did you get her phone number while you had her phone? That seems obvious, as you need to invite her over for dinner so you can show her more cool stuff about her phone.

What a great story you two can tell your grandkids after many happy years together...

that made me laugh.