Comments on: Palm Pre's big day

The Palm Pre is finally here and early impressions are good, but the first day hoopla didn't come close to matching the madness of iPhone launches.

[ozoneocean]

There were big lines for all models of the iphones because Apple has a fanatical userbase. It's silly to compare other products to that sort of unique situation. That's like comparing Pink Floyd to the Beetles in the early days. If this product is good, its success will grow. Even in the unlikely event that it DID have massive lines of people waiting for it in orgasmic expectation that wouldn't mean much if it subsequently turned out to be a dud. I'd like to wait and see how this does and what average users think of it when they've had some time to use it. And if it really is good, then maybe I'll get one myself.

[veronicacburgess]

Just a few questions rsgardimg the Pre; how does one download videos? Not that you can fit more than one or two half-hour shows. Does it use the iTunes videos? I have an iPhone and have found my favorite but my husband Is anti-Apple and needs a new phone but video is important to him.

[k1m0d0]

The Pre definitely adds to the category. After all the hype I can't understand why initial production was not ramped up. This seems to be a lost opportunity. It only makes sense if Palm is contemplating significant hardware changes to its first generation offering in the near term. It could also be that they hope to leverage initial sales to get more financing at better terms-then ramp up production capacity. Sprint demonstrates with the rebate program, once again, why no company hemorrhages customers like it does.

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[rplat]

Ho Hum . . . iPhone set the standard and no one has yet come close to it.

[rdean]

Apple fanboy much?

iPhone set a new standard. Palm just passed it. iPhone 3.0 will close the gap, but it won't catch it.

The next few years should be VERY good for consumers, as Palm, RIM, Microsoft, Apple, and Symbian try to outdo each other.

[josmor]

This is the kind of article that isn't helpful.
Why to compare? why to push in the nose of each visitor that less people went to buy?
In a crisis like the one we are living...
Please guys (News.com) start thinking to write more constructive articles. PALM is trying to do its best and they have achieved a good point. Focus on that! goods and bads... but avoid so many lines on comparisons.

[SDscorch]

ppl on here are griping that they're not eligible for their discount - and thus have to pay more than a new customer (or a sprint customer who IS eligible)

geez ppl! if they didn't have that policy, ppl would abuse it - they'd be changing their phone every other month! don't you know that the cost of the phone is "subsidized" over the life of the 2-yr contract through your monthly plan??

hello!?

[Tim_Liao]

Though if you are like me who has been with Sprint for 10 years or if you have had one of their voice with data plans ($69) for three consecutive months. The last one is easy - three consecutive months at $69 and they will upgrade you to Sprint Premiere which then entitles you to many perks including the best perk being the one which let's you have a full $150 rebate on a new phone every year, not every two years. Also being a Sprint Premier member, you NEVER pay the $18 upgrade fee. You hear me, never the $18 upgrade fee. If we charged the $18 upgrade fee yesterday and your a Sprint Premiere member, go and get your $18 back. Being a Sprint Premiere member rocks and all it takes is 3 consecutive months of having a $69 plan and more.

[BattleAce7101]

This phone is not ready. Where is the expansion slot for the stereo speaker interface etc? Much like the iHome. The keyboard is not a bad idea but they need the touch screen keys also.
The big problem is the expansion slots. You can see where these devices are replacing today's stero system asn they interface to Altec Langsing and Bose speaker solutions.
How could this miss this? You are NOT reay yet Pre!

What do you mean this'phone' is not ready? Its a phone. Stereo speakers? Come on.

[joergeske]

All of you are being ridiculous, first off the mail in rebate is the same as any provider, and BBY Mobile does instant rebates on all their providers. If you buy a phone from anyone else you must work will the mail in rebate.

Secondly all companies have 2 year contracts and for any of the big 4 smart phones on the market you have to get an all inclusive data plan, if anything Sprint's is the best deal by far because they actually offer competitive tiered rates.

Third, yes there is more advanced hardware out there, but the selling point of the Pre is the web-OS, there is nothing like it on the market. The web-OS makes it possible to quickly do things with one hand and gestures that even the iphone cannot accomplish.

Fourth, web-OS is a big deal, it brings all your data to the cloud and accomplishes this task far better than the G1. The OS is the first that has been built from the ground up for a smart phone platform. Winmo is old and out dated and requires a stylus to complete a lot of tasks and it can barely run on most hardware. The iPhones OS is based on OSX and as such is very bulky and lacks a lot of the fine tuning web-OS has. Android was meant to be an all around competitor to windows CE and as such was designed with a multitude of devices in mind. Finally black berry will soon find itself in the same place as Palm was a year ago, sitting on an old OS trying to find a place in a rapidly changing market.

Finally, to those saying we would not have a Pre without the iPhone, get off your perch and come down to earth with the rest of us you apple fan boys. The iPhone was a game changer, but it was hardly original. Capacitive multitouch was in use well before the phones launch, both winmo and palm had app stores, every phone on the market could play mp3s, the form factor was already in use, and the OS was the phones only real technological leap frog (much like the Pre is today). From a marketing stand point apple is a fantastic company and they execute at a level unseen in the tech world. The veil that separates the inner workings at apple and of all apple products is so thick that it makes the company and it's products seem flawless.

[pdx1tac]

Palm Pre going for over $500.00 on Ebay. Could someone please tell me the dynamics of this? If Best Buy has it and, you can purchase on line at Sprint for 1/2 the price, why are people willing to pay that much? And.... How is the e-bay seller getting that many to sell? Standing in line at Best Buy?

[lazycat202]

i've 10 buddies who are using iphones. I asked why they picked the iphones and what they do with it. They all had a simple answer: "because it looks nice and i need something to entertain (music/video/pictures)." By the way, they aren't power/IT/business users. Well! I respect their decisions. Everyone of us has his/her own choice. For myself, i'm going to go with HTC Diammond2 WinMoble 6.5 because i like WinMobile and its huge GPS, business, and personal apps. I haven't included the ability to upgrade its ROMs and many other things. In the mean time, i'll pass iphone and Pre.

[batemanjo9]

Sprint kicks ass! Had them for 10 years now. I only pay $37.34 after taxes a month and get unlimited everything + data. The longer your with them the bigger deals they will give you

[3phoneslater]

I've got sprint, and while I don't think they kick ass, I think they have been getting much better as of late. I've been with Nextel and/or Sprint for about 6 years now. How do you get discounted monthly service fees? I'm still paying 'full price' although it's still much cheaper than other carriers for what I've got. The simply everything plan and an internet card.

I'm looking forward to getting to a store and playing with a Pre. It's got to be better than these dang blackberry trackballs!

[The_happy_switcher]

No lines because they are waiting for the new iPhone instead.

[rdean]

No lines because Sprint + Palm are only barely advertising it. They don't want shortages of Wii-like proportions.

[seancjans]

The Pre is hands down the best phone. It does everything and has a keyboard so it doesnt work like a p.o.s like the apple phone which takes a lot to get used to. Its an awesome phone, the touchstone dock is a great easy way to charge it as well.

[joeshmoefromoregon]

Okay so I can't believe that there were no lines for this device at the sprint store and the phone is no disappointment web media music amazing was at the beach house this morning and plug the phone into the stereo system open Pandora picked cold play and wa la music . The card format works flawlessly and the phone is crisp. All that is needed in my eyes are some killer apps like wifi hot spot or book reader . The camera didn't work on my phone right out of the box and there will be a replacement for me at the store tomorrow so no harm no foul and the service people were great about the whole thing. I would have liked to been able to remove the nascar app on my phone but oh well. Absolutely love this phone !!!!!! An the Sprint 99.00 unlimited plan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[surfboy90291]

The fact that Sprint was charging $299 with a $100 rebate and Best Buy was selling outright for $199 should be the clear indication that Sprint has no connection to or regard for it's customers. With the economy as it is and people struggling for every dollar, Sprint would have likely had better success to just sell the phone at $199 from the start, a reasonable price for a smartphone with a two-year contract. And, like all in the industry, discounts and incentives are offered to new customers while those with existing contracts are denied the latest hardware at the reasonable price.

[rdean]

I like the simplicity of the PalmOS devices from the past, but the OS was getting a bit long in the tooth and its capabilities were falling farther behind.

I think the new webOS is a tremendous catch-up, and it does so without adding complexity. It's got fewer "1.0" glitches than I expected, and I'm looking forward to the coming months when new applications, Flash, and the Mojo SDK (HTML 5/CSS/JavaScript) come out.

[Braggiotti]

G1 has sold over 1 Million units in the U.S. and just launched abroad, UK and shortly in China, having the OPEN PLATFORM - ANDROID. Already 10's of thousands of developers worldwide are developing solutions on this platform, in just a few months since its launch at the end of 2008. The real beauty here is the ANDROID platform is free, Google offers a free SDK to developers, the other great aspect is anyone can develop an app on this platform. Predictions show over 10 Million Mobile users using the ANDROID platform by the end of 2009!

[Pastry Chef--2008]

I still think the Pre's success will be limited due to the fact that apps will be Java/CSS/HTML based. Essentially, web apps that are loaded locally.

What makes the iPhone great are the number of amazing apps available for it. Remember how the iPhone really started taking off when Apple announced the App Store?