Let me quickly walk you through my obsession with smartphones. Dating back to 2006, I've used a Palm Treo, two iPhones (a first-gen and the 3G), a BlackBerry Storm, and a BlackBerry Bold.
The Palm Pre comes out Saturday. I must have it.
(Credit: CBS Interactive)I first owned the Palm Treo. But when the first-generation iPhone was released, I had to have it, so I decided to enter into an AT&T contract and carry two phones. After a few months, I ditched the Treo and stuck with the iPhone. Then Apple released the iPhone 3G. I bought it the day it was released.
When Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry Storm, the company sent it to me to try out. I had it for about a month. It was a poor experience, so I happily sent it back and stuck with my iPhone 3G.
A couple of months ago, I announced on these pages that I decided to ditch my iPhone in favor of the BlackBerry Bold. I reasoned that the Bold was better for what I needed. And as great as Apple's App Store is, it wasn't enough for me to want to keep the iPhone.
So since April, I've been the proud owner of a BlackBerry Bold. It's a well-designed device that has enhanced my ability to communicate, and I like it more than the iPhone 3G (and every other smartphone I've used).
I thought it was over. I believed that for the next year I'd be able to stop myself from buying another smartphone.
And then I started to feel the Palm Pre itch. I researched it. I wrote about it. I did everything I could to see whether it was something I would want. CNET posted its review of the Palm Pre this week and, well, that ended the debate: I'm buying a Palm Pre. I'll be carrying two smartphones around once again.
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The Palm Pre: in short supply?
(Credit: Palm)Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the Palm Pre might be in short supply when it's made available later this year.
Citing estimates by six market analysts, Bloomberg says the Pre will "debut with about 375,000 units in stock." According to the report, that relatively small number (Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3G units in the first three days of availability last year) might have little to do with Palm's output capacity and quite a bit to do with its desire to live up to the Pre's hype.
"It's important to have a success like selling out," Hugues de La Vergne, a Gartner analyst, told Bloomberg. "The Pre has to live up to the hype or else they'll lose their momentum to rival products coming out soon after."
Neither Palm nor Sprint has confirmed plans to use a stock shortage to sell more Pre units. And don't look for either company to confirm such a claim.
But what if this really is the company's plan? Wouldn't that annoy you?
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Palm Pre
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)Ever since Palm introduced the Pre at CES a few weeks ago, rumors have been swirling over the possibility of Palm butting heads with Apple in a courtroom over the Pre's functionality.
Critics say the Pre's use of swiping the screen to move between windows, and multitouch gestures to zoom, make it a logical legal target for Apple, which has engaged in some posturing over the past few weeks.
In Apple's quarterly earnings call last week, COO Tim Cook said that his company "will not stand for having our IP ripped off," but he wouldn't "talk about any specific company."
It's no secret which company Cook is talking about and in an interview with All Things Digital, a Palm rep said that if the company is "faced with legal action," it's confident that it has "the tools necessary" to defend itself against any Apple lawsuits.
Whether or not Palm has a case is in doubt. Apple was recently awarded a patent that covers many of the iPhone's multitouch functionality, including the zoom functions and swiping currently found in Palm's Pre.
Will Apple use this new patent to its advantage? The company has yet to make a statement. But if takes Palm to court over the Pre, I'll be rooting for Palm.
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