Have Apple and RIM Already Killed the Palm Pre?
May 28, 2009 by Mike Nally
Filed under Gadgets
It isn’t that the Palm Pre won’t have slick features and a fun new user interface for the geek crowd to ooh and aah over come launch day.
It isn’t that there won’t be a ton of hype and free publicity when the Pre hits the streets as if we aren’t already starting to get a bit overloaded already.
It isn’t that every tech blog in the world won’t rush to write the ultimate “first impressions” review including tearing a Palm Pre apart into its component pieces to see what makes it tick.
Even with all of that karma the Palm Pre is likely to be a flop.
It boils down to the iPhone already being the must-have device for the gadget craving, game playing, music listening, video watching, social networking, occasional phone-call making, pocket computing crowd.
It looks interesting. It's received a ton of buzz. But do we need the Palm Pre in a BlackBerry and iPhone world?
And, of course, you still have the all powerful BlackBerry line as the go-to phone call making, email managing, calendar maintaining, occasional Twittering, some texting, Google searching, new Dylan album listening, business oriented mobile computing solution.
Where does the Palm Pre fit into that ecosystem? All things for all people? Dream on.
Speculating on what the Palm Pre might be able to do when compared to the iPhone or the BlackBerry line will get a small vocal group of commentators excited early on. But, at the end of the day, most real world users want a simple to use interface that lets them make their phone calls, check their voicemail, do some light email, make sure the stock market hasn’t crashed while they were in their last meeting, and maybe keep their calendar straight so they know where they’re supposed to be in a few minutes.
The iPhone separated itself from the BlackBerry mostly through the elegance and quality of it’s Web access. It did well what the BlackBerry did not. The Blackberry has survived because it continues to do well what the iPhone does not; namely corporate systems integration.
It’s hard to imagine that the Palm Pre will be able to do much that is truly innovative. It will undoubtedly do a few things better than the iPhone and a few things better than the BlackBerry line, but it will also likely fall short in a several areas as well.
It comes down to this. If you need strong email and calendar management you already have a BlackBerry since that’s what your company wants you to have. If you need strong Internet and entertainment access, and the boss doesn’t pay for your phone, then you likely already have an iPhone.
I don’t see where there’s room for the Palm Pre to be a leader in either category. Do it all? Not likely. If it did they wouldn’t have kept the phone such a bizarre secret for the last six months.
Good luck Palm. I’m all for increased competition and I hope you bring something truly exciting to the table despite my rather low expectations. I know you want to the be in the discussion with the iPhone and Blackberry. I’m just concerned that you’re about to launch the next T-Mobile Android G1 instead.
