The Palm Pre

The ignorance surrounding smart phones is pretty huge. Most of what people know is from marketing and personal experience, and that generally limits them to whatever phone they have, and whatever they've figured out themselves.

I saw a review today for the Palm Pre that was no exception. It essentially assumed that now there are two smart phones in the world - the Palm Pre and the iPhone. And it didn't question features of the Palm Pre that are strange on the iPhone. No where in the review did we hear if the Pre has a removeable data card. That's a really big deal either way.

It mentions an app store for Pre, but not if it's possible to get apps elsewhere, as is standard with most phones, and allows for a lot more freedom.

Removeable battery? no idea.

The screen size is smaller than the iPhone but the existence of a real life keyboard, which the iPhone doesn't have, was glossed over and mentioned in passing like it was an aesthetic bump on the phone.

It has GPS. Can you get turn by turn directions? don't know.

For the record, I have a Blackberry. It does have a removeable data card and battery, I can download apps from wherever I like (and in fact ones for Nokia and other phones written in Java typically work for me), the keyboard makes using it for im and email very possible. And being able to switch between applications, as mentioned as a plus vs the Pre in the article, is normal behavior. I can read through emails while on a phone call and swich to my calendar and back while doing so. No biggee. And I could sync to Exchange and I do sync with GMail and Google Calendar and Contacts.

Engadet's in depth review is a lot better (http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/palm-pre-review/). It looks like the Pre is a big step forward in a lot of respects. It has some improvements to make, but it's a solid contender alongside Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia and the other smart phones out there.

It's definitely not a one product market, and we can be very happy for that. Expect price drops and feature improvements as these phones battle for market share.