Palm Pre - Very Nice, but Too Little Too late?

Blog by Paul Golding

Palm Pre - Very Nice, but Too Little Too late?

Paul Golding - Saturday, January 10, 2009

There is no doubt, at least from their website and previews, that the Palm Pre promises to be a great device, perhaps stealing the game from iPhone in terms of providing the ultimate personal productivity experience. This probably reflects Palm's longstanding PDA heritage. But, is it too little too late?

It is certainly a fantastic looking device and UI. Some of the features, especially the overall 'unifying' theme, look very appealing. In many ways, this looks like an ultimate productivity device.

But, it's not a game changer. In fact, the game has moved on one step ahead already with the iPhone's coupling of smartphones to app stores?

The smartphone market has taken a turn towards ecosystems where the app store is a tightly coupled part of the WHOLE PRODUCT experience. In other words, a smartphone isn't a smartphone without an app store.

Is Palm therefore stuck in a legacy world of PDA-Phone thinking, rather than "Mobile apps machine" thinking, despite their pioneering support for apps with the Palm Pilot onwards.

For someone about to buy a new smartphone, are they going to go with the iPhone because of all the apps? Are apps the new pull factor for smartphones? Similarly, is a developer, probably already attracted to iPhone, going to work on yet another platform?

Moreover, if Apple decide to make more of the iPhone OS APIs public, I suspect that most of the stuff that the Pre does (like integrated messaging view) becomes do-able on the iPhone via 3rd party apps.

Nonetheless, if the Pre expands the smartphone market overall, that's a good thing. The more that subscribers get a taste of the 'Smartphone 2.0' experience, the better the story looks overall for mobile applications and services.

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Philippe Winthrop commented on 12-Jan-2009 03:00 PM

Hi Paul - Interesting perspective. As you know, Palm will also have its own app store. My sense is that because brand loyalty (except for the iPhone) is virtually nill these days, I think Palm has as good a chance as any to deliver the goods...assuming it can execute. You can see my thoughts on this same question here: http://www.enterprisemobilitymatters.com/enterprise_mobility/2009/01/holy-nova-batman-palm-introduces-the-pre.html

C. Enrique Ortiz commented on 13-Jan-2009 12:01 AM

Hey Paul. Well, no, it is not too late for Palm, since they introduced something very appealing; it would have been the end of Palm if they didn't introduce something appealing. It seems they have put a lot of thought, and also has an app store, the UI looks very nice and well thought, and they using the lightweight model for apps - interesting. I'm glad to see them innovating again. One thing they should have done to convert existing Palm users (there are many in the US) is to be able to execute old Palm apps (in some kind of emulator within); they didn't do that and that is going to cost them... ceo

Paul Golding commented on 14-Jan-2009 12:28 PM

Good comments, thanks Enrique and Philippe. Pre is definitely an appealing device. Definitely, the Mojo SDK looks promising. I have not seen it (in private pre-release only), but looks like a similar concept to the original Opera Platform solution that Opera actually withdrew from the market - using web standards to create apps. I don't think brand loyalty is the issue, but it is a good point. Developer loyalty might be more important here if, as I contend, the overall success of any smartphone is rapidly becoming (or has already become) intimately linked with a rich app store experience. Whilst Palm will have an app store for Pre, my question is whether or not many developers will rush to develop apps for Pre? As we all know, mobile developers are already very fatigued by device fragmentation. WebOS is yet another programming solution in the smartphone market, which itself is very small overall and with Palm having a small slice. My prediction is that many developers will stick with iPhone, many having recently climbed the learning curve (from J2ME say) and will wait to see what device support transpires for Android. There will only be two clear leaders in the smartphone platform. That said, WebOS uses web standards, so the platform is potentially more accessible to a wider developer community.

Philippe Winthrop commented on 14-Jan-2009 03:57 PM

I love your comment regarding AppStores, but will respectfully disagree with it (and I posted something related to this on my blog). While I appreciate the value they can provide from a consumer standpoint, I think they can only create havoc for the enterprise. What's more, I wonder how this will ultimately impact companies like Handango...

Paul Golding commented on 15-Jan-2009 10:14 AM

Hi Philippe. I will check your blog to see your arguments against the appstore for enterprise. Even so, I wonder how much Pre needs to succeed with the prosumer market to be successful, like the iPhone (and I suspect most of the Android devices).

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