Anyone get their hands on the Palm Pre? Please share what you think.
Technology Palm Pre
- Thread starter ajank
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I don't think anybody who follows business will buy the Pre.
Palm before the announcement of the Pre had a share price of less than two dollars, had to get a 450 million dollar injection from Bono (from U2) to save the company. Palm is barely staying afloat, married to the weakest network in the US (in number of subscribers).
It will take at least a year to two years before the Pre has the same utility as Blackberry, Android or the iPhone since Palm hasn't released the SDK yet to general vendors. That is if developers have enough venture capital to invest in Pre, they already are making apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile.
Palm is going up against Google, RIM, Apple and Microsoft for love from developers. I don't think the developers of Skyscape, Lexicomp, Pepid, etc. are going to devote too much attention to the phone that has the smallest installed customer base that is produced by a barely afloat mobile company.
A safer choice for a medical smartphone would be to get a Blackberry, Windows mobile phone or iPhone (it seems like most medical apps are at least available on Windows or Blackberry thus far)... if they develop those medical apps for the Pre, you'll have to wait at least 1 year since they haven't even released the SDK yet to general vendors.
The Pre is probably dead in about 2 years (unless some huge company buys it like Microsoft), Palm has no money, no installed Pre base yet, in a recession, developers are busy with the 4 other mobile company platforms (Google's Android is coming out on 18 phones - possible 21 this year, flooding the market).
Palm before the announcement of the Pre had a share price of less than two dollars, had to get a 450 million dollar injection from Bono (from U2) to save the company. Palm is barely staying afloat, married to the weakest network in the US (in number of subscribers).
It will take at least a year to two years before the Pre has the same utility as Blackberry, Android or the iPhone since Palm hasn't released the SDK yet to general vendors. That is if developers have enough venture capital to invest in Pre, they already are making apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile.
Palm is going up against Google, RIM, Apple and Microsoft for love from developers. I don't think the developers of Skyscape, Lexicomp, Pepid, etc. are going to devote too much attention to the phone that has the smallest installed customer base that is produced by a barely afloat mobile company.
A safer choice for a medical smartphone would be to get a Blackberry, Windows mobile phone or iPhone (it seems like most medical apps are at least available on Windows or Blackberry thus far)... if they develop those medical apps for the Pre, you'll have to wait at least 1 year since they haven't even released the SDK yet to general vendors.
The Pre is probably dead in about 2 years (unless some huge company buys it like Microsoft), Palm has no money, no installed Pre base yet, in a recession, developers are busy with the 4 other mobile company platforms (Google's Android is coming out on 18 phones - possible 21 this year, flooding the market).
I don't know the future of the Pre, but all of this software can already run on the pre via emulator software. While it is not quite as good as having the programs immediately available on the Pre, they can still run the programs at 2x the speed of the original Palm OS (according to the company's website).
http://www.motionapps.com/classic/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGGfWj59N4Y
Also, the Pre will be released on Verizon in 6 months, so it won't be tethered to Sprint forever. It is also rumored that Palm will be releasing a centro-like WebOS phone on AT&T in the third quarter. I think the iPhone is contracted with AT&T until 2010.
Anyways... at this point, I'm more concerned about what people think about the phone than whether it's destined to fail or not, so if anyone has any experience with the phone, I'd be happy to hear about it.
D
da8s0859q
I have one. Bought it on the morning of its release.
It's a solid phone. I have had one random restart (unknown reason), but as far as functionality goes, I think it's great. I will say that Gizmodo and Engadget have both covered some notable flaws in their reviews of the device (Synergy not working as it should, etc.), but in my admittedly limited usage as far as light voice usage and lots of texting go, I can't say I mind it.
Unless you're a Centro pro, the keyboard will take some adjustment. I don't have gigantic hands, but I have to type with my thumb fingernails. This is something you can do faster than you think on that little keyboard.
Built-in OTA contact sync functionality with Gmail is a welcome addition, although to be fair, Google does provide its own Exchange access for WinMo (and other) users looking to synchronize calendars and contacts.
Guess I have to reserve final judgment, but thus far, I really like it. I'll say that battery life isn't amazing -- moderate usage from ~10:30 AM through midnight or so leaves me with 25% - 30% remaining -- but I guess it's manageable.
It's a solid phone. I have had one random restart (unknown reason), but as far as functionality goes, I think it's great. I will say that Gizmodo and Engadget have both covered some notable flaws in their reviews of the device (Synergy not working as it should, etc.), but in my admittedly limited usage as far as light voice usage and lots of texting go, I can't say I mind it.
Unless you're a Centro pro, the keyboard will take some adjustment. I don't have gigantic hands, but I have to type with my thumb fingernails. This is something you can do faster than you think on that little keyboard.
Built-in OTA contact sync functionality with Gmail is a welcome addition, although to be fair, Google does provide its own Exchange access for WinMo (and other) users looking to synchronize calendars and contacts.
Guess I have to reserve final judgment, but thus far, I really like it. I'll say that battery life isn't amazing -- moderate usage from ~10:30 AM through midnight or so leaves me with 25% - 30% remaining -- but I guess it's manageable.
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Looks like a promising device. (Though I just pre-ordered the iPhone 16GB 3GS) 
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You have to wonder how well the Pre will sell when you can get an iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 3.0 8GB version for $99 + 2 year ATT contract. You don't have to wait for standard medical software like Epocrates, MedCalc, Skyscape. You can do great browsing and multimedia.
And, you don't have to try to guess at the long-term viability of the platform. There are 40 million iPhone OS devices out there between iPhone and iPod Touch.
If you like somewhat less ubiquitous gadgets and really can't adjust to a virtual keyboard then the Pre is pretty cool right now. However, there hasn't even been a WebOS version of Epocrates announced so you have to shoe-horn Epocrates for Palm OS into the Classic emulator and run it on a virtual screen the size of a Centro without a stylus or using your fingernails (they don't work on capacitative screens).
And, you don't have to try to guess at the long-term viability of the platform. There are 40 million iPhone OS devices out there between iPhone and iPod Touch.
If you like somewhat less ubiquitous gadgets and really can't adjust to a virtual keyboard then the Pre is pretty cool right now. However, there hasn't even been a WebOS version of Epocrates announced so you have to shoe-horn Epocrates for Palm OS into the Classic emulator and run it on a virtual screen the size of a Centro without a stylus or using your fingernails (they don't work on capacitative screens).
D
deleted87716
Yeah, after seeing the demo of Epocrates running on the emulator, I have to wonder how easy it's going to be to reliably use all of the little buttons and sliders typically found in most Palm OS apps. Plus, without any HotSync support, you would have to download and reinstall an application like Epocrates from scratch any time you wanted to update it. Not exactly convenient.
