It looks like a very nice phone. But it's not an iphone killer unless it has the ability to download apps and games (paid and free) with a fairly deep library of apps like the iphone has. And the visual voicemail feature for the iphone is very cool, I'd hope this phone has that as well.
Sprint will be the initial provider, but Palm has confirmed that there WILL be a GSM version of the phone as well, so those of you not on Sprint, take heart. And FWIW, Sprint is probably the best provider right now for a highly web-based phone like this -- as far as data service goes their network is still superior to AT&T and Verizon IMO. Also, from what I've heard this is only the first in a new family of devices that Palm is going to be releasing. There will be options for everybody, eventually. This isn't going to be like Apple's "you do things our way or the highway" deal. There won't be a single centralized app store ... it will be ridiculously easy to make apps for this phone, and even though there will be a Palm app store they're not going to monopolize it. And YES, the battery is removable, unlike the iPhone.
Then I'll have to wait even longer Common Nokia/Apple,Motorola,Whoever ) Come out with a great touchscreen that has a QWERTY (Physical) Keyboard.
One of the things Palm addicts like myself have stuck with their phones is the absolutely plethora of available apps, both free and nonfree. Now this phone is a completely new platform so it's not going to run PalmOS apps (at least not until someone writes an emulator), but they've basically made it such that all you need to know is HTML/CSS/Javascript and you can write an app for this phone. And with Palm's history of solid support for application developers, I fully expect the number of available apps for this platform to eclipse Apple's fairly quickly.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/08/the-palm-pre/ [rquoter]The phone is running Palm's all-new webOS platform, with TI's new OMAP CPU under the hood -- which Palm claims provides laptop-style power, and which juices the phones smooth transitions, scrolling and "deck of cards" app-switching.[/rquoter] How many times do you actually deal with customer service for your provider? The only time I deal with mine is when I reup. I never had to call for dropped calls, billing issues, etc.
I have never had to call T-Mobile but to activate my service. I have never had any issues with my service. One of my friends who has been with Sprint has gone through like, five different phones, and they all seem to have the same problems, which makes me think that it's the service, not the phones. My boyfriend has Sprint, and he's always having issues. My brother has Sprint and seems to like it, but it seems way more hit and miss than other providers.
With this kind of platform and API, I'm pretty sure that someone's going to write a third party onscreen keyboard app pretty quickly if Palm doesn't provide one themselves. The significance of the multitasking can't be overstated. Finally you can talk on the phone, surf the web, check email, update calendar, send text messages, use GPS ... all at the same time. Phone calls won't interrupt what you're doing.
^^ I think my biggest issue with Sprint is that it seems to have the most inconsistencies out of all of the providers that I've noticed.
I've been a Sprint customer for about 8 years, and I have made exactly one call about a service issue in that time. I have had to contact a Sprint service center once to get a replacement phone because its Bluetooth feature was defective, but that was a phone issue (dang refurbs), not a service issue.
Well if you all live close to each other and they've had problems with Sprint, I would think Sprint coverage is spotty in that area. I've been in towns where Verizon (supposedly the biggest network) didn't have a signal.
I've heard some providers will give company discounts on your bill depending who your company is. Maybe something to check out.
I have had great service with Sprint, on calls, data, using my phone as a modem and customer service. I've been with them for 10+ years.
People were wondering why Palm refused to adopt Android previously ... they thought this was the only way they could save themselves from inevitable death. Now they know why. Btw...the guy behind this phone is Rubinstein, former Apple exec who created the iMac and iPod (the two devices that rescued Apple and turned it into a tech powerhouse). He basically went to Palm, and at the time the Palm guys were already working on the Nova (now called WebOS) platform. He saw it, liked it and basically killed off everything else except for a couple of new phones to keep revenue coming in and people semi interested while they worked on this. It's fairly amazing how they were able to keep this under wraps completely. People knew Palm was working on a new platform, but pretty much everyone was surprised by how they completely hit it out of the park at their CES presser yesterday.
I think Apple was kind of smart about not allowing multitasking. Mobile phones have very limited resources and having a bunch of apps just slows it down. Also I hope Palm provides native app support instead of managed code. You already have a finite amount of resources having a manged app takes away from that.
