Palm hasn't lost, but it's still easy to say that, because people are so used to hearing it. *NIX with HTML, Javascript, CSS is the state-of-the-art in terms of features, flexibility, value and ease of development, and WebOS has this in common with Android and the iPhone.
Sprint isn't going away anytime soon, either, even though they've lost some marketshare. Sprint owns a hell of a lot of fiber and towers, not leases, owns. They are a backbone carrier from which others lease bandwidth.
People fetishize the shit out of their phones, or phones they wish they had, and don't pay attention to real-world specifications, behaviors, and costs.
Why would I say this? I worked for a platform-agnostic wireless software developer back in 2000, and the tech press, the popular press, and armchair experts (consumers) have been getting it wrong for a long time, as far as these types of death-knell pronouncements go.
i'm a very happy pre user, but i really enjoyed this article. your points are all valid, and i have heard most of them in webos forums before, coming from the keyboards of palm fanboys themselves. although your criticisms offer a roadmap for palm to turn things around with the right leadership and funding, i'm not sure they will ever get those things. i don't think they have lost yet, though. they need to learn from Android's rise and iPhone's continued dominance. They need to build on their unique take on what a mobile OS should be, and they need to throw the doors of development wide open, including access to native apis and "bullpen" (with a strong warning) where developers can toss unreviewed apps. right now, this happens in the homebrew catalogs maintained by the likes of precentral.net, but it needs to be an in-house operation. #palmpre
@Joe: they way for Palm to come out of their slump is to give up on WebOS. sorry. they don't have the resources to compete. At least try they can try to focus on their core business - which is phones. #palmpre
@froggy: I disagree. For a year, T-Mobile was the only place to get an Android phone, and it's only now, with the new phones from Motorola, the new carriers and an OS revision that it is really taking off. WebOS and Palm are in the same situation. With the Verizon Pre, and possibly some more carriers on the way, Palm may succeed.
I know the whole "but the iPhone has been out for two years" BS is played out, and really you have to look at the offerings right now, as they are marketed, but WebOS is nice. I love my Pre, I'm hoping Palm plays the card right on this one. #palmpre
@Lizard_King: I don't love my Pre. I feel that I was misled by Palm at the very least and paid way too much for a phone that doesn't really do too much. Shit, what kind of smartphone makes you jump through hoops to sync data? #palmpre
@cuchanu: Sounds like a case of not-enough-research. I'm having no problems syncing my contacts and calendar, for documents I just use drag-and-drop, and the Calendar automatically syncs with Google calendar. Of course, this was all fairly flexible on my end, I have no need for Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.
The Pre was exactly what I had expected and more. My wife now has one and feels the same way. We both tried out iPhones and the G1, I preferred the iPhone, but hated the G1 (the "chin" bar was too uncomfortable to type over). For me, it came down to the fact that work pays for a Sprint bill, and for her it was the hard keyboard, Sprint coverage (AT&T sucks here) and the cost. #palmpre
@Lizard_King: I'm not saying the WebOS is not nice. I'm sure it is. (haven't played with it enough to have an opinion). My point is - and i think it was very well argued in the article - that WebOS is a little too late to the party, and as such it has little chance of surviving in the long run. If I was to make decisions for the Pre, I would worry about whether it makes sense to sink money in WebOS development or move those resources to something else. There are all sorts of good ideas out there, that does not mean they will make it into business. Sometimes, it is about economies of scale... and sometimes, the best business decision is to cut your loses. #palmpre
@Lizard_King: I'm specifically talking about Outlook syncing. I know it's possible, but it's not a matter of plug-in and sync like it should be unless you have exchange.
Yes, media syncing is easy, that much I like about it. #palmpre
I don't think Apple cares about syncing per se as much as crushing Palm by making it look small and the Pre unattractive by tossing it around like a mouse. Apple's the cat, right? #palmpreitunes
You have several valid points, but I will tell you, even after using the Verizon Droid handset for several days now, Android 2.0 still feels to me rough around the edges. The functionality is there, but it feels nowhere near as polished as WebOS and the iPhone. It is clear that a group of engineers designed the interface - it is powerful, yet unrefined from a design point of view. I just surrendered the phone, and while there were aspects I loved about it (the notification bar <3), I felt a sense of comfort going back to my iPhone...it was so fast, so smooth. Even with the fast processor, moving between homescreens wasn't buttery smooth.
While this might not compare with some of the points you raised above, I can guarantee you that the UI design is one of the firs things regular consumers will notice. #palmpre
@MrBlahBlah:
Use widgets on the iphone and see if it is buttery smooth...oh wait YOU CANT because you cannot multitask
Dont judge something before fully understanding it, even my g1 is as fast as any iphone with a few tweaks. So, I think everything you said is biased beyond belief
@unjoelievable: And like arguing for multitasking or widgets ISN'T biased beyond belief? You sound quite a bit more biased than the person you responded to. You know, the iPhone does technically multitask out of the box. Apple allows only Safari, iPod, Phone, and Mail to all run in the background, so they are still running after you close them out, and yet the iPhone still runs "buttery smooth" with those 4 apps running in the background. And jailbroken users will also tell you that the iPhone easily handles multitasking while remaining smooth.
Do you think the majority of consumers care about multitasking, let alone even consider it? Or do you think the more pleasing and polished looking interface design, fluid eye candy, and applications is what they care about?
I'd put my money on the latter. Nerds, tech blog fanboys, and maybe business users are the only ones who care about multitasking. Despite that, iPhone is still number one in consumer choice among business users. You do understand that you techblog fanboys only make up a small percentage of the consumer market right?
1) "apple ALLOWS only safari, ipod, phone, and mail"
You killed it when I read allows, because apple will only ever give what they think is best. But, moreover about the multitasking on the iphone...the little numbers on emails, messages, and etc, are the cheapest excuses for widgets i have ever seen on a phone. To me that is not multitasking, thats bitchtasking. I run about 8 or 9 apps at once most of the day on my rooted g1 and its faster than any iphone. You say jailbroken iphones are great at multitasking....WRONG, i have plenty of friends who have jailbroken their iphones and for 1 it still doesnt let you multitask legitimately, and 2 the phone would restart when they tried to force it to run for example a game and music. So dont just go make up shit to make a point
2) More polished design you say? Lets see you customize ANYTHING besides the lockscreen wallpaper on a damn iphone, hows that for your illogical "polish" argument
3)THE ONLY REASON WHY the iphone is still #1 IS BC OF PPL LIKE YOU!...who refuse to think that anything can compare to the now average iphone that you are paying 100 bucks a month for! The only thing keeping apple on top is HYPE....which really pisses me off because it doesnt give any other companies a chance, even tho other companies phones are great. which is whats going on w/android...
If i were apple i'd allow it, and every time the user plugs in a pre they have to sit through an iPhone ad and perhaps get a special deal offer on one. #palmpreitunes
... So don't update your iTunes, people. I mean, the same could be said about the jailbreakers and Apple's incessant patching, which keeps me stuck on 8.0.2 - dickish indeed. But 8 is fine, since it's just getting more and more bloated anyways. #palmpreitunes
i disagree, john. i see it as Palm maintaining a service Pre users expected when they purchased their phones. that it would sync with iTunes. as a Pre user i would be sad if Palm gave up on me. like when my parents left me at the Grand Canyon when i was a boy with a funny mullet wig infused into my scalp.
@Nick: Anyone who purchased the Pre thinking the iTunes syncing would be permanent is delusional. Seriously, it was announced as a backdoor hack, anyone with half a brain would have questioned this feature. #palmpreitunes
The world did exist before the iPhone, hard as it is to believe.
In case we forget, Palm was already on the verge of imminent death before the iPhone came out - mostly out of some of the most amazing bad decisions ever to be seen in a company.
It biggest rivals were Handspring and the Visor - which later became the Palm Treo when the Palm and Handspring merged.
Palm kept diddling and resisting improvements to PalmOS while companies like Sony stepped in and did it for them.
Meanwhile, Windows Mobile was perched waiting for Palm to screw up, which they did, and essentially took over the entire market.
Then there was that whole - 'we'll spin off the OS to its own company which we'll then sell to a competitor while promising a new upgrade" which of course, never showed up - thing.
Palm mostly held on because the Treo was one of the first integrated phone/PDAs out there.. but RIM and WM totally creamed them.
Most people were amazed there was enough left for Palm to muster up the Pre. #palmpre
@TheWerewolf - Sotto voce: BLASPHEMER! The world is flat, and the cosmos revolve around the Apple. Galileo Galilei is wrong! Apple is here, and soon you shall not be here! The dread Pirate Roberts will destroy you! #palmpre
Why in the heck would I want to sync my Pre with one of the poorest-designed music management software platforms ever made (hey, it's still better than RealPlayer)???
10/30/09
Sprint isn't going away anytime soon, either, even though they've lost some marketshare. Sprint owns a hell of a lot of fiber and towers, not leases, owns. They are a backbone carrier from which others lease bandwidth.
People fetishize the shit out of their phones, or phones they wish they had, and don't pay attention to real-world specifications, behaviors, and costs.
Why would I say this? I worked for a platform-agnostic wireless software developer back in 2000, and the tech press, the popular press, and armchair experts (consumers) have been getting it wrong for a long time, as far as these types of death-knell pronouncements go.
/rant #palmpre
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
I know the whole "but the iPhone has been out for two years" BS is played out, and really you have to look at the offerings right now, as they are marketed, but WebOS is nice. I love my Pre, I'm hoping Palm plays the card right on this one. #palmpre
10/30/09
10/30/09
The Pre was exactly what I had expected and more. My wife now has one and feels the same way. We both tried out iPhones and the G1, I preferred the iPhone, but hated the G1 (the "chin" bar was too uncomfortable to type over). For me, it came down to the fact that work pays for a Sprint bill, and for her it was the hard keyboard, Sprint coverage (AT&T sucks here) and the cost. #palmpre
10/30/09
11/02/09
Yes, media syncing is easy, that much I like about it. #palmpre
10/30/09
But it was a good article. I hope Palm does well, because it will add that much more competition. #palmpre
10/29/09
Droid is good? sure, but hey, if they can only make a f*king smartphone as large as a netbook, try puting it in your pocket first. duh. #palmpre
10/30/09
gizmodo is crazy
Yes but in an AWESOME way. Who approved this troll that said that "Gizmodo is crazy, that is your downfall right there"?
Phew. Guys, can we get a Demote button please? #palmpre
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/31/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
While this might not compare with some of the points you raised above, I can guarantee you that the UI design is one of the firs things regular consumers will notice. #palmpre
10/29/09
Yeah, Google definitely isn't known for their UI. #palmpre
10/30/09
Use widgets on the iphone and see if it is buttery smooth...oh wait YOU CANT because you cannot multitask
Dont judge something before fully understanding it, even my g1 is as fast as any iphone with a few tweaks. So, I think everything you said is biased beyond belief
Go and enjoy your iphone #palmpre
10/30/09
Do you think the majority of consumers care about multitasking, let alone even consider it? Or do you think the more pleasing and polished looking interface design, fluid eye candy, and applications is what they care about?
I'd put my money on the latter. Nerds, tech blog fanboys, and maybe business users are the only ones who care about multitasking. Despite that, iPhone is still number one in consumer choice among business users. You do understand that you techblog fanboys only make up a small percentage of the consumer market right?
11/04/09
You done sucking on Job's dick yet?
1) "apple ALLOWS only safari, ipod, phone, and mail"
You killed it when I read allows, because apple will only ever give what they think is best. But, moreover about the multitasking on the iphone...the little numbers on emails, messages, and etc, are the cheapest excuses for widgets i have ever seen on a phone. To me that is not multitasking, thats bitchtasking. I run about 8 or 9 apps at once most of the day on my rooted g1 and its faster than any iphone. You say jailbroken iphones are great at multitasking....WRONG, i have plenty of friends who have jailbroken their iphones and for 1 it still doesnt let you multitask legitimately, and 2 the phone would restart when they tried to force it to run for example a game and music. So dont just go make up shit to make a point
2) More polished design you say? Lets see you customize ANYTHING besides the lockscreen wallpaper on a damn iphone, hows that for your illogical "polish" argument
3)THE ONLY REASON WHY the iphone is still #1 IS BC OF PPL LIKE YOU!...who refuse to think that anything can compare to the now average iphone that you are paying 100 bucks a month for! The only thing keeping apple on top is HYPE....which really pisses me off because it doesnt give any other companies a chance, even tho other companies phones are great. which is whats going on w/android...
So you know what FUCK APPLE... #palmpre
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
ps
life's a garden -- dig it. #palmpreitunes
10/29/09
10/29/09
Nokia needs a good OS, Palm needs good hardware, it's a match made in heaven.
Though no one will ever see this comment. I wonder why I even post here anymore... #palmpre
10/29/09
10/30/09
11/07/09
10/29/09
In case we forget, Palm was already on the verge of imminent death before the iPhone came out - mostly out of some of the most amazing bad decisions ever to be seen in a company.
It biggest rivals were Handspring and the Visor - which later became the Palm Treo when the Palm and Handspring merged.
Palm kept diddling and resisting improvements to PalmOS while companies like Sony stepped in and did it for them.
Meanwhile, Windows Mobile was perched waiting for Palm to screw up, which they did, and essentially took over the entire market.
Then there was that whole - 'we'll spin off the OS to its own company which we'll then sell to a competitor while promising a new upgrade" which of course, never showed up - thing.
Palm mostly held on because the Treo was one of the first integrated phone/PDAs out there.. but RIM and WM totally creamed them.
Most people were amazed there was enough left for Palm to muster up the Pre. #palmpre
10/30/09
10/29/09
I'll keep my drag-n-drop, thank you very much.
10/29/09
why does a dog lick its balls? #palmpreitunes