Palm Pre & webOS Unveiled

So, the first carrier that it is coming out through is Sprint? I'm gonna have to second Jaman on this one...absolutely ridiculous! Great new technology, amazing new phone, and they once again miss the starting gun...c'mon Palm.

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Corey

I found all your comments here (certainly the first 51) quite interesting, gentlemen. However what I find really puzzling is that we have not heard back from "our man on the ground" in Vegas for a couple of days. This seems to be quite a breakthrough innovation (with lots of little or large reasons to complain as we see here in the posts), but nevertheless, last thing heard was "heading off to get my hands on one". Well we have seen videos and stuff on all kinds of websites, what happened to our man? I hope nothing bad. Looking forward for an indepth comment from him.

@Don

Andrew usually doesn't post on the weekend, so look for something tomorrow.

As I said before, I'm really excited about the phone. I understand why you're upset, though. I think the exclusive carrier strategy shoud be forbiden. It's a punch below the waste. You can't force a custumer to pay for a service they don't want. Even to us that don't live in America it could be bad, if it kills an excellent product marketwise. As people said here, it tends to be temporary, though. Let's cross our fingers.

They announced that Pre is going to be a family of products. Do you think the others are going to be exclusive too?

I'm optimistic around here. The reception was great (it has been elected by Cnet the best in show, and got the People's Voice Award in CES). However, as it tends to take a while to get here, I'll wait and see if the buyers are pleased about the everyday use before I get my hands in one.

Ok. Now that I've had the weekend to read over the specs again and watch a few videos and whatnot, my initial reaction was a bit harsh. However, I'm not glowing with anticipation, but definitely curiously optimistic.

The OS so far looks spectacular, but as many have stated we'll have to wait for the details.

The Pre will be offered in several varieties. Now I'm interested for sure. Even though the Pre may not technically ever be labeled as a "business" phone, the fact is that many businesses will purchase the Pre due to the Palm OS and corporate email capability (especially if Verizon becomes a carrier).

What happens when Sprint launches the phone, 3 months go by, and still no word on the other Pre phones and carrier additions. Patience may wear thin for some, but hopefully this doesn't happen. If sales are good, Palm will hopefully keep more phone options coming.

Maybe they've got a phone planned that has most of the stuff we thought was missing AND it would be available through 2 or 3 carriers? Just maybe.

As a Verizon customer, I'm seriously bummed by the options I've had at this time. I really don't want to convert to a Blackberry, so maybe the Pre will come to the rescue soon enough.

OK, I recommend everyone go read the specs for the Palm Pre. Just a couple of things folks have missed here...
1.It CAN be charged via usb.
2.USB mass storage means you can connect the device to a computer & have it recognized as a mass storage device instead of a phone and transfer files directly from your PC to the phone w/o having to sync.
3.Let's recall Palm's heritage. The iPhone, & others didn't appear out of a vacuum. They replicated & expanded (elegantly) on things Palm created. Palm Pilot? Treo? Remember those devices. See them in the iPhone, Blackberry? Of course. The Pre is Palm's own reinvention of those things. The Pre is derivative of Palm, not the iPhone.

Will people switch carriers? Perhaps. AT&T reported almost 150,000 new subscribers within 2 days after the iPhone launched.

Given that Sprint's unlimited data plan costs far less than other providers (and is truly unlimited, not capped), it could be a good incentive to switch.

On second thought...

Now that the dust is settling, a few unanswered questions are becoming increasingly unsettling...

- no desktop?

- cloud-dependent? What if I'm on the subway for 3hrs per day, or my office is underground and in a wifi deadzone or I work in a wifi deadzone? Is the data on my PDA or on the web, in which case I don't have access to it at all???

- no expansion slot? So, there's no desktop, no expansion, where's my information??? How do I back it up?

- no stylus, how do I copy and paste sections of text? How do I use drawing apps and diagram apps without the precision of a stylus?

Having said that, I really think the multi-tasking platform is absolutely amazing, and hope that these rough edges are worked out with as yet to be announced hardware. Perhaps the Pre is just the first entrant and may soon be followed by a device that looks more like the current Treo line and has the concerns mentioned above addressed...??

Oh, C'mon! Who really wants desktop? I hardly sync my treo! And that's my third treo smartphone (600, 650 and 680). Since we can backup the files using the Smartphone as massive storage device, the Hotsync becomes obsolete.

@Victor

desktop syncing is an absolute requirement.

how nice you have a magic treo that will never get lost, damaged, stolen or broken!

All I have to say is...OMG. I just watched the Las Vegas video on Palm.com. The Palm Pre is simply amazing, its everything I loved about the Iphone rolled up with all I love about Palm all updated, plus a few sweet xtras like the touch stone charger, I cannot wait until this thing comes out, I will be first in line and thank the Lord I already have sprint...yayyyyy

Have to agree -- locking in to sprint -- big mistake. I'm forced to choose between my loyalty to palm devices and my need to stay on the same network as my wife, kids and family. Who do you think is going to win? Not to mention that Verizon is simply a better network, why would i want (like iphone users) a great phone on a lousy network? I had to wait months for my centro, but ultimately I'm asking myself, shouldn't I just try some new hardware? And palm, in its exclusivity, loses.

Folks criticizing Palm for teaming with Sprint seem to be too naive. In light of Palms financial problems, they needed someone to front development and production expenses. Teaming with Sprint for 3 to 6 months obviously got them this type of funding. If the internet aspects of the pre are as dynamic as they seem buyers will wait a few months for the promised GSM version. I share the disappointment over the lack of an SD card and Garnet compatibility, but the standard is not the iphone and it has neither.

Multitasking is a huge advance. Whether Apple can or will match it is a major question. If they don't, the iphone may fade away as has the Treo when Palm didn't keep up with new technology.

I wish to know why do you systematically araze my comments.
Am I so disturbing ?
My frustration too honnest ?
My comments too acurate ?

I am disturbed deeply.
Please give me an explanation.