Welcome back, Palm
(Credit:
Corinne Schulze/CNET)
This weekend will be a big one for Palm and Sprint. The Palm Pre goes on sale Saturday and while it may be a while until we see specific numbers in terms of units sold, I think one thing's apparent: Palm is back.
The story's been told many times before. Palm, who enjoyed much success early on with its Treo series, fell from grace after it failed to deliver new, exciting products. In August 2007, Engadget wrote an open letter to Palm, calling for an intervention after the company turned from "respected underdog and innovator to repeat offender in stale gear" and pointed out key areas where the company needed to step up its game.
To their surprise, Palm's CEO Ed Colligan responded and said, "Although I can't say I agree with every point, many are right on. We are attacking almost every challenge you noted, so stay tuned. Let's remember that it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate. We have only just begun to fight."
And fight they did. It took a little while to get here, but Palm answered almost every one of the challenges with the Pre and its webOS. The hardware, while far from perfect, does bring a number of improvements, including a smaller chassis and higher-resolution display. Yet, as we've all read about, it's the Palm webOS that's the true shining star. Not only did Palm develop an operating system that rivals the others in functionality, but it also goes a step beyond and offers something more in its multitasking abilities, notifications system, and integration of information. Now it's on the competitors to catch up with Palm in those areas, and at the end of the day, this only means good news for us as consumers as we'll get more choice and more capable devices.
Palm's built a solid foundation for future devices but we hope and believe that the company will continue to push the envelope. For now, though, we'll just say well done and welcome back.
Now, the bigger question is how will the Palm Pre affect Sprint?
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie. 
We look forward to your follow up with the numbers of battery life, enhancements which
I'm sure to come and updates on the PRE. Myself included, to be fair - will for the first time ever -
possibly stand in line even up to 5 hrs, and I'm told 2 hrs to activate the phone (have no idea why),
Only to be able to share with others, a new sherrif is in town and he's called the PRE.
Also, on a personal note: Thank you for taking the time to do these reviews and following up with
comments to your followers. It does make a difference to keeping CNET
in the forefront.
Until we meet again (got to get some sleep before sun rise tomorrow :),
Thanks for everything you do for us!!!
Please forgive me!
Being Verizon customers, we expect great service...so we're still up in the air if we can live with what Sprint has to offer. What our initial test traveling around North Florida yesterday (Gainesville, Keystone, Alachua and then finally home to Newberry), service was relatively good and equal to what we get with Verizon. Actually, it almost exactly the same.
Our only problem really relates to the poor service we got during our afternoon rain at home in Newberry, FL. Service isn't great in our small town on a dry day and prior to Sprint our Verizon service usually hung-out around 2 or 3 bars as normal.
I also happened to speak with Sprint having other technical issue with my wife's Pre and Sprint was very helpful going through multiple steps to clear an issue with Sprint TV (probably one of the coolest things I've seen in a Long Time).
On side not...Sprint mentioned adding new towers in our area scheduled for Feb 2010 and Oct 2010...so at least their making motions in this direction, but that doesn't fix our problems and lacking service in the mean time. We plan to test our units out more in the coming weeks and thankfully have 30 days...to try things out and get our money back if we're not happy.
Also note, if service is inadequate in your home or office and need to enhance things inside to bring 1 or 2 bars to 4 and 5 bars...you can purchase the Sprint Airave as reviewed previously on Cnet - http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phone-and-smart/sprint-airave/4505-6448_7-33226984.html to tap into your High Speed internet connection. Sprint and T-Mobile have both had this for a while and from what I've read work real well.
Wish ATT had something like this, since half of my ATT iPhone 3G customers can't use their phones in their office or homes (they literally get no service)...why anyone would have a phone that didn't get at least 1 or 2 bars inside is beyond me.
- by ace10134 June 6, 2009 3:03 PM PDT
- Dude the Sprint store was filled with customers today, Saturday. There were about 5 representatives showing off the Pre, 2 display models to use, (I had to config the device myself, so it's on my account now, even though it's a store model!) and more Sprint workers willing to help. There were probably 7-10 customers there at the time that I visited, and they even had the lines set up for where people were probably waiting in the morning to get in!
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(9 Comments)I recommend going to your closest Sprint store (which I found using my Windows phone) and test out the Pre for yourself, it was awesomee!!!