Beleaguered Palm, Inc. today unveiled its Palm webOS mobile platform and the Palm Pre, the first phone based on the new platform.(1) Pre, which looks sort of like an Apple iPhone with a midlife spare tire, is scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in the first half of 2009.
According to Palm, Palm webOS was invented exclusively for mobile use. webOS recognizes that you want your people, calendars and information to move with you, wherever you are, wirelessly, as opposed to being bound to a personal computer. Palm dubiously and incorrectly claims in their press release that “Palm webOS is the first mobile platform to automatically bring your information from the many places it resides – on your phone, at your work or on the web – into one simple, integrated view. The new Palm Pre and webOS are designed to be so in sync with your needs that it feels like Pre is thinking ahead for you.”
MacDailyNews Take: Been there. Done that; and better, too. In 2007.
“Palm products have always been about simplifying lives and delivering great user experiences,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer, in the press release. “webOS and Pre bring game-changing simplicity to an increasingly mobile world by dissolving the barriers that surround your information. It’s technology that seems like it’s thinking ahead to bring you what you care about most – your people, your time, and your information – in the easiest and most seamless way.”
“Pre continues Sprint’s leadership in open access to the content customers want for a great web-connected experience,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint chief executive officer. “We look forward to bringing this remarkably innovative device to our customers on America’s most dependable 3G network.”
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah, blah. Do these guys have any idea how late they are to the party and that they’re arriving with so little?
Anyway, Palm’s webOS leverages several industry-standard technologies, including web technologies such as CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. On top of that, Palm claims to have “included creative and innovative advancements to enhance the overall user experience and provided a deep integration of all elements within the platform.”
Palm’s press release states:
The new platform was designed to allow a vast ecosystem of partners, including developers, hardware suppliers, and accessories manufacturers, to develop core solutions to complement the platform and product line. For developers, webOS shatters traditional barriers to mobile-application development by offering a rich open development environment that’s familiar to tens of millions of web developers. More people can develop for the platform and can do it faster than ever before. The platform’s flexible environment will also allow developers to distribute their applications over-the-air via an on-device Palm application store.
MacDailyNews Take: Somebody send these guys a newspaper or a radio or, God forbid, an iPhone. Oh, wait, by the looks of the Pre, looks like they’ve already seen an iPhone. They should’ve turned it on while they were copying.
The rest of Palm’s press release verbatim:
The new platform introduces Palm Synergy, a key feature of webOS that brings your information from all the places it resides into one logical view. You don’t have to worry about tracking multiple calendars, contacts and messaging applications – Synergy brings it to you for a more comprehensive and truly representative view of your life.
Linked contacts – With Synergy, you have a single view that links your contacts from a variety of sources, so accessing them is easier than ever. For example, if you have the same contact listed in your Outlook(3), Google and Facebook accounts, Synergy recognizes that they’re the same person and links the information, presenting it to you as one listing. And if you update a contact on your webOS device, it also will be updated in your various accounts, whether on a personal computer or on the web.
Layered calendars – Your calendars can be seen on their own or layered together in a single view, combining work, family, friends, sports teams, or other interests. You can toggle to look at one calendar at a time, or see them all at a glance.
Combined messaging – Synergy lets you see all your conversations with the same person in a chat-style view, even if it started in IM and you want to reply with text messaging. You can also see who’s active in a buddy list right from contacts, and start a new conversation with just one touch.
Your Information, Effortlessly
By smartly integrating your information, webOS is designed to think ahead for you and keep you on top of the things that happen in your life, but that’s just the first step. The platform’s unique interface brings your information to you with the ease that only Palm can offer.
Web-connected applications – Applications are seamlessly connected to the web and always active(4), ensuring you have the most up-to-date information.
Run multiple applications at the same time – Palm’s revolutionary webOS lets you manage multiple activities more effectively than any other mobile platform today. It lets you keep multiple applications open and instantly flip from one to another.(4)
Instinctive user interface – With its multi-touch interface, webOS lets you move easily between activities like flipping through a deck of cards and rearrange items simply by dragging them; when you are done with something, just throw it away. And finding what you need is easy with universal search – as you type what you’re looking for, the OS narrows your search and offers results from both your device and the web.(5)
Intuitive and unobtrusive notifications – When important things come up or new updates arrive, you’ll receive notifications with a diplomacy that’s a radical departure from other mobile platforms. For example, if you receive a text message or email, a scrolling notifications bar at the bottom of your screen lets you address it right away or leave until later. webOS alerts are one step ahead, ensuring that you never miss a thing, but never lose your place or train of thought.
Palm Pre: The First webOS Phone
Pre has a breakthrough interface and hardware design that makes it the most integrated and user-friendly phone for mobile users. Featuring a smooth, rounded ergonomic design and a physical keyboard that slides out only when needed, Pre is engineered to feel natural in the hand and comfortably small in the pocket. When closed, the phone is ideal for phone calls, web browsing, music, photos and videos; when open, Pre is optimized for email and text messaging. With its curved slider and gesture-controlled touch interface, Pre fuses exquisite design with the revolutionary webOS software for fast access to anything on the device or web. It’s an instinctive user experience that seems to anticipate your needs.
“As our lives revolve more and more around the web, devices like Palm Pre that transform how we interact with the web will lead the way,” said Hesse. “We are focused on bringing our customers a superior experience that includes easy-to-use devices, simple pricing and value with Simply Everything all-inclusive offerings, plus Ready Now, our exclusive retail program that helps customers leave the store feeling comfortable and confident they know how to use their new device.”
Pre will support a variety of differentiated on-device Sprint services, including Sprint TV(R), offering an extensive selection of live and on-demand programming. Sprint Navigation provides GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings. Sprint also offers more than a dozen streaming-radio applications, including Sprint Radio with more than 150 channels.
Palm Pre features include the following:
– High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A or UMTS HSDPA)
– Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g(6)
– Integrated GPS(7)
– Large 3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320×480 resolution HVGA display
– Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
– Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
– Email, including Outlook EAS (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (POP3, IMAP)
– Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities)(4)
– High-performance, desktop-class web browser
– Great multimedia experience and performance (pictures, video playback, music), featuring a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field, and a standard – – – 3.5mm headset jack
– Bluetooth(R) 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
– 8GB of internal user storage (~7.4GB user available)
– USB mass storage mode
– MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
– Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
– Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
– Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
– Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
– Removable, rechargeable battery
– Dimensions: 59.57mm (W) x 100.53mm (L, closed) x 16.95mm (D) [2.35 inches (W) x 3.96 inches (L, closed) x 0.67 inches (D)]
– Weight: ~135 grams [4.76 ounces]
An array of compelling accessories also will be available for Pre, including the first inductive charging solution for phones (sold separately). Simply set Pre down on top of the elegantly designed Palm Touchstone charging dock without worrying about connection, orientation or fit. Pre is active while charging, so you can access the touch screen, watch movies or video, or use the speakerphone.
Availability and Pricing
Palm Pre is scheduled to be available first in the United States exclusively from Sprint in the first half of 2009, and will be followed by a world-ready UMTS version for other regions. Sprint’s pricing for the phone has not yet been determined.
(1) Use of this device requires providing a valid email address, mobile phone number, and related information for account setup and activation. Unlimited usage data plan strongly recommended; additional data charges may apply. Within wireless coverage area only. Number of applications and actual performance will vary depending on applications used and actions performed.
(2) Claims: Largest based on square miles (including roaming). Based on independent, third-party drive tests for 3G data connection success, session reliability and signal strength for the top 50 most populous markets from March ’08 to Sept. ’08.
(3) Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost. Microsoft Direct Push Technology requires Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 with SP2 or Exchange Server 2007. Additional fees may apply.
(4) Within wireless coverage area only. Use of some third-party web applications may impact performance.
(5) Searches web and user’s applications, contacts, and dialing information. Web search within wireless coverage area only, requires data services at additional cost.
(6) Within range of 802.11b/g Wi-Fi network. Some Wi-Fi hotspots require fee for usage.
(7) GPS requires data services at additional cost. Coverage not available in all areas at all times.
Palm, webOS, Pre, Synergy, Touchstone, Treo and Centro are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.
Source: Palm, Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: This is sad. It’s like the Acme Buggy Whip company bringing out something they excitedly describe as an “automobile” in 1955.
“It’s the same old, same old in an iPhone-inspired wrapper… You can judge the distance behind and overall cluelessness of iPhone’s future roadkill by the amount they copy the iPhone’s exterior… This ceaseless quest to dress up antiques in Apple veneer is pathetic and sad… The question I’m left with for [all] of these companies rolling out imitation iPhones this year is: Exactly how stupid do you think your customers are?” – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, April 01, 2008
I think many of us used Palm devises in the 1998-2005 era, and enjoyed their productivity features. I always liked Palm products, until they adopted the Windows Mobile platform, which served to confuse their identity. I hope they succeed with this, and remain a viable, successful company. Their success will mean more competition and pressure for WinMobile. And perhaps their success will be a help to Sprint, which seems to be struggling. Although I am not fond of Sprint, it will be bad news for U.S. consumers if the only wireless choices in 5 years are Verizon and ATT. A duopoly simply means higher prices for all. *Perhaps the name “Pre” is in honor of the late, great Oregon distance runner Steve Prefontaine!*
@caruso.
I will always give credit where credit is due. I have been a fan of Palm since the late 90’s. I began hating them soon after I bought a $500 full price Lifedrive. The device crashed like no one’s business.
I finally gave up after 2 years of waiting for corrections and a decent Palm device to come. I bought an iPhone and even though I love the experience, I still think there are some short comings in the device. However, I really and truly believe that OSX and Android will win in the end.
But I am man enough to say that the new Palm Pre looks absolutely stunning. If it can do in real time what they have portrayed in CES, Palm may come back from the grave. I remember fully well when Leo Laporte and his cohorts on TWIT stated that Nintendo without BluRay, HD, Multicore processing power would die in 2006. They were wrong!
Colligan is a smart man. I would not rule him out. He had the audacity to team up with “the enemy” and brought about Palm’s survival. He even canceled a product days before it even shipped. He had the Schutzpah to release a “girly” phone on Sprint and sell it for $99, selling over a million of them, buying name recognition essentially and branding new customers who may ante up for something bigger by Palm.
Now he’s producing a device to rival even his own new Microsoft pal’s. I give credit where credit’s due. This looks like a good device and even though I have chosen the Apple side after waiting for 2 years, I still respect both Palm and its users.
/rick.
YEAH!!
maybe I’m finally getting through.
All the “competition is good” robots aren’t saying it as much.
Possibly because, yet again, a ‘competitor’ has nothing much to offer besides ‘marketing’. It’s shameful the way Honda’s building walking robots (really) and we’re stuck on building half-ass iphone copies. Honestly, fantastic software and hardware is coming from more companies around the globe, and US companies need to innovate to survive. The best thing about Apple is, it will hopefully make more average people question why other companies are so far behind, and only ‘market’ good products instead of actually making them.
“Checked out the Palm.com site – this looks WAY better than Blackberrty or G1 offerings.
I am not giving up my iPhone for it – but if I couldn’t have an iPhone, this would be top of my list to evaluate.”
I totally agree. I’d certainly give this a look over any WinMo device!
Sure, we don’t have one in our hands, but it still looks way better than anything the Google boys showed before the G1 shipped. And this Pre looks fantastic compared to the ugly G1.
I hope Palm survives, and gives the whole mobile world an incentive to innovate, including Apple.
Good on you, Palm! A product that looks to me to be ahead of anything else that has tried to take on the iPhone.
yep. this is a decent device that will push apple more on basic features such as copy, cut & paste, mms as well as multi tasking. i am a fanatic of apple brand but i have to admit that this is a more-than-decent device. and i have to admit that palm has always been a great in a pim area. iphone’s pim is very basic actually compared to palm os’ pim.
@MacSmiley
I’m with you; as a US Cell customer in rural Wisconsin, the GSM doesn’t reach enough areas that I travel in, so the AT+T choice is like having a really cool phone-only you can’t make calls or use the web unless you travel another 50 miles to get a signal.
Palm does not mention anything about tethering, so my guess is that it is not available; is that something they copied from Apple and there AT+T pals, too?
I’m looking forward to the release of this pre… I obviously wont be giving up my iPhone but I’d love for them to take away some market from blackberry. Palm was the best and they had the industry by the palm….
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Then they brought on windows mobile…..and now look at them. Here’s to hoping more phone companies adopt windows mobile!
Really like the sync and layered calendar. Apple needs to keep adding features to the iPhone, and some of the Palm stuff looks really good if it works.
Apple innovates, but just doesn’t seem to move new stuff ahead fast enough. And locking in AT&T;is I believe a blunder. I think Apple was too greedy at the onset, and has left wide open the door for formidable partners that can bring on copycats with strong marketing and support.
Be careful with the ‘sour grapes’ stuff. This palm does multitasking, as in foreground background processing, it has copy and paste, and a real keyboard. Bluetooth A2DP and wireless charging. Time for Apple to head back to the drawing boards.
– Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
Wow – it only took Palm 2 years to copy an idea from Apple. Microsoft usually takes about 5.
All the comments about how great the iPhone are and how “nobody could ever do better” always make me laugh. How good or bad this phone is will be determined when it’s actually out in the real world. Marketing hype is always just that- hype.
Like some others have pointed out- competition is good for us, the consumer. Or do all you folks actually think Apple is looking out for us and not themselves? Apple does have a history of innovation, though they’ve had their share of screw-ups as well. Do you really think that Apple would innovate at the same pace if there was no competition out in the market place? Really?
Besides all that, AT&T;just cost too damn much. Not counting the cost of an iPhone, me switching to AT&T;would more than double my current monthly costs. As good as the iPhone is, it’s just not worth an extra $100 per month in my mobile bill to me. I currently pay under $90 a month for three phones, all sharing the same bucket of minutes, with two of the three having unlimited data. If you can come up with a similar deal from AT&T;with two iPhones and a third basic phone, pleas elet me know! I haven’t been able to come anywhere near that price yet.
The iPhone may be the best phone out there right now, but an iPhone without a service plan is just an iPod Touch. Once you factor in the service plan, it’s no great deal for us consumers.
So, good luck to Palm. I hope their new phone and OS are decent, and good improvements over their past offerings. They *better* improve their Mac support too- that to me is their biggest drawback with their current products.
I can’t understand how MDN (or anyone else) can bash this phone. Nothing will ever replace my iPhone…but this has to be the fullest featured phone available–sans app store.
MMS
3 MPX camera
Full GPS
Full Bluetooth
Full browser
and on and on. Not to mention the touchstone. Although somewhat gimmecky, sounds WAY cool.
It just seems to have everything that people complain is lacking from the iPhone and the Storm. The Storm is probably the worst smart phone out there.
Face it MDN. Palm’s Web OS is certainly some SERIOUS competition to the iphone’s platform. Fanboy defend all you want bottomline is that Apple had better be working hard on the new products.
I’m assuming thats exactly what they are doing since there wasn’t anything at Macworld to speak of.
Maybe Steve Jobs is saving his energy for a REAL keynote somewhere down the line in 2009. I hope its soon though.
I actually had a chance to play with this beast today at CES, and I was kind of shocked by how great it is. I don’t know if it would get me to give up my iPhone, but I am sorely tempted.
Here’s my take: with everything that this phone does that they copied from the iPhone, the iPhone is better, but this phone can do so much that the iPhone doesn’t that it is scary. Here’s the deal in my opinion: whenever someone asks me about the iPhone, what I say is that it is the best portable computer ever made, that since I got it I no longer need to travel with my laptop, and that it is a wonderfully innovative device and some of the third-party applications are equally innovative and amazing. But I also add that as a phone, it pretty much sucks. The sound quality (this could be AT&T;’s fault) is mediocre and it can’t do a number of things that you can do on any Nokia or Motorola phone that the cell carrier just gives away. Like, picture mail, sending text to multiple recipients, resending texts, integrating calendar and contacts and many more phone-related features. While I love my iPhone more than any device i’ve ever owned, I’m frequently tempted to swap it for an iPod Touch and a Razr. The only thing that stops me from doing that is that the Touch doesn’t have 3G or EDGE. You can instantly tell that the iPhone was designed by computer guys and that it is basically a handheld computer grafted onto a phone.
Now the second you pick up the Pre, the experience is exactly the opposite — this is a phone first and a computer second. All the little phone-related touches that are needed to make the thing an innovative communication device are there. The computer side, however, may be somewhat lacking. There don’t seem to be too many applications available (existing PalmOS programs don’t run) and it looks like apps will, at first be like iPhone 1.0 web apps. Lame. I don’t see it becoming the great portable computer that the iPhone/Touch is. And the fact that it is limited to 8GB is bogus. But the thing has MMS, True multi-tasking, unified messaging, unified calendering, links between calendar and contacts, turn by turn GPS, music over stereo bluetooth, USB mass storage, replacable batteries, a real keyboard and tethering. These are all real-world important features that if had them I’d use every day. This puppy is very tempting, but my real hope is that maybe it will goad Apple into trying to leapfrog it and give us some of these features and more in the iPhone 3.0.
Oh, And it is certainly on par and even surpasses the iphone platform in some areas the Palm Pre makes android look like utter CRAP!
@bobsyeruncle
Excelent analysis dude and my thoughts exactly. Bottomline I hope Apple realizes that the competition has caught up and that they should soon debut products that leapfrog the competition and force them to start allllll over again into taking another couple years to catch up to Apple.
Another thing…..
If RIM wasn’t crapping their pants before they certainly are now!
I would buy Palms Pre anyday before I would buy that latest Blackberry.
This is the BEST copy to date. I like Palm and hope they do not go away. It is well thought out, but I am not sure about it running apps and games. Still, I like it and give Palm credit.
I think now we realize the power of Apple’s SDK, iTunes and iPod, and software intuitiveness in general. It is the standard to copy.
I, too, want to know what Steve was talking about when he talked about all the copywriting of the technologies. It doesn’t seem like any hardware technology was copywrited at all.
Palm syncing with a Mac was the worst possible nightmare ever…far worse than any Ballmerinvention. It was beyond a horrible experience to say the least and I would be ashamed.
If they can charge it by laying it on something, then surely they could make it sync with a Mac.
I hope they give Blackberry a run for their money…I now put them dead even for second place. 10,000 Apple filtered apps and counting with an easy SDK to write an app…that is the edge. Next, Apple will beef the hardware specs of the iPhone/iPod and truly have a gaming machine/mobile computer. Editing documents really is needed, and soon.
Guys, there is plenty of market share for everyone. I really feel like Palm has a success on their hand. I place Palm in second place over the year, behind Apple’s iPhone. The Palm interface is going to be better suited than RIM or Windows Mobile. As for Android, I think it is not even going to compete in major markets. Android is probably suited for the Asian markets where proprietary software isn’t considered a positive. I see RIM dying before Android over the next three years.
If Palm wants to succeed, it needs to make a blanket change-over so that all its products run webOS. The PalmOS is no more.
@madgunde
Is it just me or are all the crazy mac fanboys just overly biased towards apple. If MDN had actually done research they would have found it is actually three times faster than the current iphone processor. They have many innovative designs as well because they also have a off screen gesture area and a cards design that lets you RUN MULTIPLE PROGRAMS at a time. Also it combines all your myriad contact data from several sources such as facebook, gmail, address book, ect. and gets rid of duplicates.
Please do your research before condemning everything non-mac as hideous.