Palm did it: better experience than Apple

Um, while a product is still vapor (hasn't shipped yet, genius) its a little hard to declare it a winner. How many concept cars has GM made that would own ALL other cars out there, only to have them produce a Pontiac Sun Fire with a different body kit? (Original re-make of the GTO, I'm looking at you.)

(Disclaimer: Some of my friends from college work at Palm now. If you're reading this this, Matt, good job, I think your product kicked ass.)

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#5

Post by tptacek » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 6:39 PM UTC

redrobot5050 wrote: post #4

Um, while a product is still vapor (hasn't shipped yet, genius) its a little hard to declare it a winner. How many concept cars has GM made that would own ALL other cars out there, only to have them produce a Pontiac Sun Fire with a different body kit? (Original re-make of the GTO, I'm looking at you.) (Disclaimer: Some of my friends from college work at Palm now. If you're reading this this, Matt, good job, I think…

Read it as if he's evaluating the product on the merits, not as if he's predicting the market. The iPhone is going to crush this thing, but it's still a nice looking device.

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#6

Post by mdasen » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 6:42 PM UTC

I hope so. As a Sprint customer, I've been waiting for such a device. As a general consumer, I'm glad that others are challenging Apple. I love Apple, but I also like others to be able to challenge them. In my opinion, no one was able to match the iPod for ease of use and size. The Palm pre is at least dimensionally competitive at a mere 2grams heavier and only 15% greater volume (a real keyboard takes up some space).

It's nice to see someone who hasn't decided, "we can make it kinda appear to be an iPhone" in the way that the G1 disappointed with its lack of multi-touch capabilities.

Hopefully Palm will pull it off!

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#7

Post by timae » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 7:01 PM UTC

But Apple did it first, that counts for a lot. Palm's UI looks awesome, but it wouldn't be as cool if Apple didn't pave the way a bit. Not taking anything away, they did a much better job at building off of Apple's innovation than RIM did with the Storm (the phone I currently have - forced to stick with BlackBerry for work).

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#8

Post by gojomo » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 7:15 PM UTC

The Palm Pre looks great -- but has Scoble touched/used one? Until then, definitive judgments are premature.

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#9

Post by redrobot5050 » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 7:16 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #5

redrobot5050 wrote: post #4

Um, while a product is still vapor (hasn't shipped yet, genius) its a little hard to declare it a winner. How many concept cars has GM made that would own ALL other cars out there, only to have them produce a Pontiac Sun Fire with a different body kit? (Original re-make of the GTO, I'm looking at you.) (Disclaimer: Some of my friends from college work at Palm now. If you're reading this this, Matt, good job, I think…

Read it as if he's evaluating the product on the merits, not as if he's predicting the market. The iPhone is going to crush this thing, but it's still a nice looking device.

I know, I'm just saying, sometimes features get pulled at the last minute on behest of the carrier or because they're not "stable" enough -- or cost. Until it ships, its hard to judge.

But competition is good, tho. I'm in favor of Palm kicking ass and taking names.

Re: Palm did it: better experience than Apple

#10

Post by swombat » Fri, Jan 09, 2009, 7:46 PM UTC

I hate to sound like an Apple fanboy, but you need more than a pretty phone to dethrone the iPhone. The App store is the best thing since sliced bread. The ever-growing developer enthusiasm for the iPhone is a huge factor too.

And if webOS is basically web-based, that means that all of Palm's apps will be available on the iPhone, but none of the iPhone's apps will be available on the Palm Pre. Not exactly a winning proposition.

Well done for getting the design close to Apple's standards (though they had to poach a team of Apple people to do that, all the way down to the packaging that looks just like Apple's), but being a second fiddle won't win this war...

This is not to say that it won't be successful. This Pre is clearly a slick piece of kit. But it won't be anywhere as successful as the iPhone, and certainly won't do "better" than the iPhone.