Pre Extras
In many ways, a Pre fresh out of the packaging is formidable competition for a new iPhone 3G. But that iPhone has tens of thousands of third-party applications in its corner, most of which cost no more than a few dollars. The Pre will ship with an app store that offers only a handful of programs: the aforementioned nice version of Pandora and apps for LinkedIn and the Fandango movie-ticket service, among others. I’m rooting for the Pre as a software platform and hope that third-party software companies embrace it–and it could thrive even if comes nowhere near matching the surging sea of iPhone apps. But from what I can tell, the mobile software community is taking a collective wait-and-see attitude on the Pre; I ask most developers I run into whether they plan to support it, and “maybe” is about the closest thing I’ve heard to irrational Pre exuberance. Of course, that could change quickly if the Pre is a hit. Which I expect it will be.
One interesting Pre application at launch is not a magic cure for the shortage of Pre software: MotionApps’ Classic emulates the old Palm OS and lets you run some existing applications. But except in special circumstances, I don’t think throngs of Pre owners will want to turn their hot new smartphone into a tired old PDA. And my brief experiments with Classic were less than a rousing success: Bejeweled crashed the Pre at first (it later ran well), and Handmark Express refused to launch.
It also remains to be seen just how many accessories the Pre inspires, but it’s off to a good start with one truly nifty add-on from Palm itself. The $70 Touchstone charging base lets you charge your Pre through inductive technology–one you’ve swapped the standard backplate for one that comes with the Touchstone, you simply plop the Pre onto the base and it charges, no futzing with cables required. And it remains usable (including as a speakerphone) when it’s sitting and charging.
The Bottom Line
For years now, tech pundits have made a national pastime of predicting doom for Palm. Some still do. But the Pre is a hail mary of historic proportions–the most significant new Palm product since the Treo (which was, strictly speaking, a Handspring product) if not the original PalmPilot. Really good phones have a pretty good track record for selling well, and the Pre doesn’t need to sell in iPhone-like numbers to be a hit that buoys Palm. Me, I’m a lapsed Palm fanatic who hopes very much that the Pre sells like crazy–webOS is such an important product that I want it to have every chance of making its way to multiple phones on multiple carriers (like the rumored AT&T Eos, for example).
If you get your hands on a Pre, let us know what you think. I certainly plan to share more thoughts on it in the days, weeks, and months to come…
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June 17th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Great Review. I am rooting for Palm to get back into the game..