Business Cases, Value Propositions and the Pre 78
Making the case for the Palm Pre in Business
With its US release in June (and Canadian launch last week), the Pre became the latest major player to try to be the smartphone for the huge small and mid-sized business market, which I argue isn't well served by either BlackBerry or iPhone. How well does it succeed?
Read on!
In the past few years, the business smartphone category has had one clear leader: Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices. Solid, reliable and above all simple to use, they have become the standard issue for businesspeople. They are, though, much better suited for larger businesses, needing dedicated servers on top of the business' mail system in order to fully use their potential. They also traditionally lacked some flexibility: they were good messaging devices, but less useful for Web browsing or other applications beyond simple games. Many of these shortcomings have been addressed in recent years, however.
Apple entered the market two years ago with the iPhone, which generated a lot of desire but had real challenges for business use. While the iPhone far surpassed the BlackBerry in Web browsing and (eventually) applications, it lagged behind (until very recently) in Office document review and editing, and (worse still from an IT support perspective) required Apple's ever-updating, ever-evolving iTunes application on every desktop in order to properly keep it synched and backed up. These qualities made it much more appropriate for students and solo practitioners, whose work environment was a desktop rather than a server-driven network. While other smartphones sought to fill the wide gap between the enterprise-focused BlackBerry and the iPhone, few (not even Palm's Treos or the nascent Android-based devices) gained much traction.
I could make similar arguments for the other major smartphone platforms out there. Android, Symbian, and even the PalmOS all haven't seen large success in the US business market. Windows Mobile has done better, but Microsoft's inability to keep the OS up to date has held it back. On to the Pre then. Let's judge by two crucial criteria: the business case and the value proposition.
What's the business case for the Pre? Like all modern smartphones, it enables and empowers a mobile workforce, giving always-on access to the Web, e-mail and other crucial features. Its Web browser is robust, supporting important technologies like Javascript, SSL and popup windows, and incorporating novel usability features (the doubletap to zoom into text) that add to its ease of use. The Pre supports industry standards like EAS (improved with WebOS 1.1 to include remote wiping and other business features), and also integrates seamlessly with Gmail and other POP/IMAP servers in a unified environment. It easily runs a growing list of apps (including most PalmOS legacy apps via Classic),
Unlike the iPhone, it does not need a desktop component to update, install apps or back itself up. It's relatively inexpensive, has a physical thumbboard as well as the potential for a virtual keyboard (now realized), and is easy to use. Add the Pre's multitasking, and its ability to improve mobile productivity becomes clear, as does the business case for it.
What about the value proposition? The purchase price is reasonable for the features, and Sprint's Simply Everything plan costs less than the same offering from AT&T. Support costs are also fairly low, given the ease of use, its built-in readers for Office docs and PDFs, the lack of desktop software and its adoption of common industry standards like EAS, Google sync and even microUSB for charging and connecting as a USB drive. For companies that need to create their own proprietary apps or hooks into existing systems like timekeeping or salesforce automation, Palm's free Mojo SDK, which uses standard HTML, CSS and Javascript, is an easy environment in which to work, and the ability to sideload bypasses the need to "jailbreak" in order to add features other than those supplied by Palm. Even Palm's choice of open-source Linux as an operating system reduced any outside licensing fees it would have to build into the Pre's cost, adding to its overall value.
While the Pre still needs a significantly broader business software library (especially Office doc editing), even as it currently stands, it's a viable choice for the many thousand small- and mid-sized businesses. As long as Palm can get that message out to this huge potential market, the business future of the Pre seems very promising.
78 Comments
Say what you will. But without a functional calendar, the business prospects for the Pre are dim and nil.
Unless a major update improves the speed of this phone, I'm hoping ship to a "windows phone" this October. Or Blackberry. Or iPhone. Hell, just about any phone is faster than the Pre at this point :(
+1 from me.
The calendar is definitely too slow. I have a few calendars hooked directly into my Pre (vs. some that are hooked into my google calendar), and it just takes too long to move around and do anything in the Pre's calendar.
Last night, I tried to slide over in the calendar from yesterday to today, and it literally took about a minute to switch over and then un-gray so that I could interact with it. After I input or change the time of an event and then back-gesture to get back to the event detail page, it takes a good 5 seconds at least for the event detail page to reflect the new time.
With the slowness of changing days, there's no way I can depend on the calendar quick answers to such things as "hey, can we meet at 1 the day after tomorrow?" or "Can we schedule a meeting for x time tomorrow?"
Trying to put in an appointment takes even longer, and not just 'cause there are more steps...getting a new event detail screen is OK, but saving it and having it show up seems to take a bunch of time, too. Just...ugh...
I want to love it, I really do...but I just can't rely on it for quick entry as I could with my 4 previous Treos...and let's face it, "calendaring" does not have enough inherent value for me to want to deal with it much beyond "quick entry" 90% of the time.
?? What's wrong with the calendar? While I miss the categories, I can accept them being gone as different calendar services have varying support for them. What does your calendar do that's so bad?
I agree that the calendar, for all of its excellent integration, is too slow. I would hope for a rapid update for better local caching of data or other tweak to enable quick display of existing calendar info. {Jonathan}
While the calendar is slow, I can live with that. However the fact that it does not update with changes that I have made in Outlook/Exchange even after I press the "Sync" button is a big problem.
I have no idea what phone you are using but my calendar is pretty fast and when I make a change in my outlook I get on my phone in a split second. I love this calendar comparing with what I have used in the past
I guess it might seem a little slow but I don't really feel it is. As far as sync, as soon as I get an email or add a calendar event or do anything in my Exchange-connected Outlook client, it is pretty much immediately reflected on my Pre.
The options are very basic so I can understand if someone would need a more fully-featured offering but speed and sync seem fine to me and work to keep me up to date when I am around the building at work away from my desk.
anon to the rescue!
Yes I agree.. the next update should be a whirlwind of change toward bettering the current calendar and contact functions!
This phone is so over-rated, it's sickening. Besides the webkit and "multitasking" whatever little we do have on this phone, every phone I had in the past is more advanced than this so-called "smartphone". And nobody can tell me otherwise.
can you please name every phone you had in the past?
I don't wanna go through the list, but I can tell you those phones actually had functions straight out of the box. Can you believe that?
Why not give us a list? I wanna know so I can go buy these 'advanced' phones.
How were these other phones more advanced?
You really can't figure that out? Ever hear of an extremely advanced function called a notification nag? That's just one thing.
You call that advanced? A missing feature yes. I was thinking of a phone that also fired lasers :-) Since you mentioned 'extremely advanced'.
This, and MANY OTHER MISSING "FEATURES" make this phone LESS advanced; which, of course, was my point to begin with.
Once again...name some of these neglected features. My primary uses are phone, web, email, calendar, chat, music, basic games, portable modem, and navigation. I had those things on my last phone as well but this one is less expensive, adds multitouch, adds fast multitasking, adds an open Linux framework underneath that makes tweaking and adding things simple, and stays on the cheap network I have grown accustomed to.
I have not found another device this capable for *my* needs that is also this affordable to operate. Everything else either is missing features or doesn't have the QWERTY or costs 20-30% more per month for the same plan features.
Rose colored glasses and glass half full apply here. (nothing personal) :-)
I dont know about you but I've had an HTC Touch Pro and Blackberry Curve....and those phones, yes, do have a tad more functionality when it comes to the business sense(and the Touch Pro wins the battle over the Curve)
BUT! Also realize, WinMo is how old? yes, youre correct sir, VERY old compared to WebOS.... and STILL the Pre only lacks some minor differences in calendar while it still remains highly functional? The only difference with the TP I had was that the events would show up in advance to let you know whats happening next and updating events correctly with Exchange can be fixed with an update as well...on a WinMo device youd probably have to wait for the next available rom...which means new phone...which means possibly a 2 year wait......
So I'd say, for where we're at with the Palm Pre we are very far...
and the multi-tasking thing that you merely brushed off as a minor detail....well, it outdoes any other smartphone out there and to me is a very very important aspect...
I wouldn't call an audible, repeating notification nag "advanced", but it is something that is SORELY MISSING on the Pre, making it useless for those of use who need to use the phone to communicate in ways other than just chit-chat.
I have to carry a freaking PAGER (remember those?) because the Pre can't nag on notifications and I miss extremely important texts and calls. :(
Err..this is no different than the Treo\Centro? On those, when you got a text\email\chat\etc, the phone would play the alarm tone ONCE, and then give you a little blinking icon in the upper left of the screen that would stay there until you acknowledged it.
Pre? Email\Text\Chat alert tone and then put icons in the dashboard until acknowledged. This functionality is EXACTLY the same??? 8o
I support 900+ servers and over 20K users with my Pre and it is pure butter. Calendar? All EAS appts sync perfect and the speed? Hmm...try sharing 3-4 Calendars in your Outlook Desktop and see how long it takes to "switch" calendars...(hint: NOT seconds) Think about WHAT you are doing when you open the calendar and it has to UPDATE 3-4 "cloud" calendars simultaneously. Try setting just the calendar you NEED and switching between then using the menu bar....much better.
I am loving my Pre and wowing my clients at the same time. ;)
You are right... It is no different than the Treo & Centro. Those were *just as broken*. But at least on the Treo I had the option to use TreoAlertMgr. (And yes, I tried to contact the author of TreoAlertMgr about the Pre, but they were bought out by an uncaring company).
But the issue is- look at the OTHER phones out there. Most phones, even the CHEAP ones, have the ability to nag. It is an extremely important feature to many people. And it is a *simple* function to add. One would think that Palm would have learned this by now and had the function on it's flagship device.
"Try setting just the calendar you NEED and switching between then using the menu bar....much better."
*head slap*
What an obvious, or rather should-have-been-obvious, tip. Thanks! {Jonathan}
I think that Palm needs to improve document editing abilities. Moving around to edit text is a major PITA. With my BB 8800's trackball and mouse mode, I could move my cursor quickly and accurately with only my thumb. The Pre requires 2 fingers min, and is very slow to move.
Highlighting text is simlilarly sluggish and complicated.
The fact is that my finger does not always make a good replacement for a fine tip stylus.
I like my Palm, but it was easier to work with documents in my BB and even my old Treo 650 than it is on the Pre.
While I love my Pre for my use, if I were a CIO, I would have a hard time choosing the Pre for an entreprise solution until Palm improves the build quality of the hardware to be more durrable. That is one area where RIM is way better than the Pre. Enterprise phones tend to go through quite a bit of abuse. I have many friends and coworkers with Blackberries and those things are built like tanks compaired to the Pre. I still enjoy laughing at how crappy their phone's web browser is though. :-)
Making the OS faster & improving the actual phone quality a bit wouldn't hurt either.
As for the IPhone, I would have a hard time requiring the deployment of Itunes enterprise wide just for a phone. Pre's cloud based approach makes much more sense.
I agree partially with the first comment here. While I love the wireless syncing & multiple calendar abilities on the Pre I am constantly frustrated with how long it takes to pull up the calendar or jump to a new day etc. Even if I leave the card open all day. I rely on my phone's calendar every day as I'm most often away from my office. I am embarrassed really when I have to tell people to wait and wait and wait while my calendar loads so I can see if I'm available on that day/time. This is my biggest complaint at this point & is really making me think of heading elswhere.
We all have to remember we are talking about a generation 1 device in the Pre. I always stay away from those until now, with the Pre. And I am gald I got it. Sure, there are some shortcomings that can be maddending. But, basic platform itself is mind boggling in its potential. The major question is can Palm fully exploit the capabilities it has in the Pre. Historically, they have made great advancements from the TREO 300 through the 750. I do not see why they can not do that again. To me, the wild card is, will they survive financially? Times are tough, Apple is a behemoth and alot of chips are bet on a struggling Sprint.
"basic platform itself is mind boggling in its potential"
Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) don't buy potential, they buy rock-solid, field-proven solutions with real advantages and bottom-line savings/improvements. Sorry, but the Pre's not there yet:
- 8 GBytes? I want my sales staff to take their customer database on the road, brochures and product sheets for quick e-mailing, boilerplate proposals for quick turn-around, etc. Give us a 32 or 64 GByte device - or add a microSD slot - and we'll talk.
- no Java? I don't care HOW easy-to-use WebOS is, as a small business owner I'm not going to support multiple platforms. Blackberry and Windows Mobile both support Java, and I understand that Android will too (and I don't care about iPhones for the reasons described above). When the Pre will run Java apps, it will be added to our "consideration" list
- no Bluetooth mouse/keyboard support? Did I mention that I want my sales reps to be able to take a boilerplate proposal, edit it and send it quickly? The little keyboard is great for texting, even e-mails, but not 2,000 word documents
- a slow calender with no notifications? DOA...
- a battery that can't make it through a work day (hey, junior, REAL workdays are 10 and 12 hours long, not 4 or 6). OK, an extended-capacity battery is available from a third-party, but why not from Palm?
- no car charger? Did I mention "road warriors"??
And, while I can't fault the Pre for not offering a feature that no other smartphone does (yet) either, why can't we have a dongle for driving an external monitor? If they can give PowerPoint presentations from their phone, my reps would have no further need of a laptop.
Sure, the Pre (or, more likely, a successor device actually aimed at the business market) has great potential for SMEs. When Palm delivers on it, they'll find a ripe market waiting for them.
The Pre does have a lot of improvement to do overall. That being said, it is just a 1.1 product. Why Palm has been around for a long time, this OS has not.
BB users will remember just a few short months ago, many of us didnt even have MMS, a common feature on all phones (except iPhone lol)
The BB will probably still be the King of Business users for a while but the Pre can grab some market share. I myself do not like the Pre for business because of its terrible battery life. But it all depends if you want to take the bumps with the Pre or just go to the boring but reliable BB for now. Thats just my opinion though
I couldn't adopt Palm at this time if i ran my own business. Too beta, and Palm itself is still pretty much an ongoing concern.
I'd feel more confident seeing where they stand next summer.
The trick though is getting businesses to leave something that they've already established a relationship and resources with...such as BB or Iphone. What can Palm really offer these small businesses to get them to change? A 1.0 beta OS & devices that have faulty hardware issues? Really?
Meanwhile, RIM and even Apple can offer much more. RIM doesn't just cater to large businesses.
As a student the only thing that really bugs me about the pre is the calendar. I NEED Agenda view! Would like the phone to be less buggy, but I'm sure they're working on that. Give me Agenda view Palm!!!! Oh and to be able to search the calendar. I don't know how you business people are able to deal with the calendar. I love my pre but they need to add those features for me to LalalaLove it.
I have heard people asking for an Agenda View on the Pre before I just don't understand why. Since the Pre collapses free time on the Day View does this not provide the same information? Don't get me wrong I don't think that they should not add an Agenda View (the more features the better) but is it really necessary?
isnt agenda view the same as leaving the calander open in a card? you can see your appointments for the day in that one card.
I love the Pre but it isn't as quick, somewhat painless and therefore useful to me as all of my PDA's and Smartphones up until now...Palm Pilot, Palm Pro, Palm III, Sony Clie, Treo 650, Treo 700p, Treo 755p. Up until now, I could set an appointment, link a contact to it, log it and make notes so I would have a running file of when and where I met or spoke with someone and what occurred. When I saw the videos showing what was to come, the example was that you would set a meeting and if you were late, the Pre knew you wouldn't make it and could send emails to the attendees automatically telling them how long you would be, if you set it up that way. Now, I set an appointment and I can't even set a contact to it...the area with the icon with the little people isn't there as I've seen in other videos showing the great integration of the Calendar and the Contact list. Even my Palm Pilot could do that. In my opinion, we have too much Apple and not enough Palm in the Pre.
Does that mean I want to bail on it for an Android or Windows system? not on your life. Palm users know that there is no perfect device and depend on enthusiasts and third party software to get it there like iambic and numerous others. But that doesn't make the wait any easier.
So I will keep my Pre, not this one because it has that "shuts off whenever it wants to" problem, but I do like the phone. I made a enough on the stocks to buy it and all the accessories I could ever need so please guys...get off your butts and give us some real software to work with. Then we'll have a real business phone.
Wow, I must be the only one without calendar problems. I currently have 3 calendars for myself and 2 linked. There is no problem with speed when opening my calender. WAIT I just timed it against my friends Storm and omg mine opend .005 ms faster than his, oh ya he cant link to other peoples calenders. If you think waiting a second for your calender is too long I know the name of a good Doctor that can prescribe you some high blood pressure medication and valum.
Well then Bring on the Valium.
My Pre does take too long to populate the calendar. I have meeting where people ask in passing if i am available 3months from now. by the time the Pre is up and running, my meetings have moved on to the next topic. I end up having to have a paper calendar. and THAT is too 1980's for words...
nb
This anonymous guy makes a point you all need high blood pressure medicine.....Do you people forget that there are weekly views and monthly views. I have 3 linked calendars and no matter what I do to pull it up in any view (that would mean the today view, the weekly view, and the monthly view) it really only takes a second. It appears that most data is not stored locally on the device making it appear slower than most of you would like, but truthfully I like that idea. It would mean that less data on your device is being used, (I need proof for that statement still) but it only makes sense since synergy is cloud based. Try pulling all your calendars and just utilize the on-device calendar, then time it, I think you may see a difference in speed. Respect synergy, it's very useful and I have yet to see a device to handle as many calendars as the pre does. Enjoy your pre's, I do.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add that you can jump to any date by pressing the calendar tab in the upper left area of the calendar card. Come on guys wake up here. I just tried it myself and man was that quick and painless you big cry babies.
You said in the article"
"For companies that need to create their own proprietary apps or hooks into existing systems like timekeeping or salesforce automation, Palm's free Mojo SDK, which uses standard HTML, CSS and Javascript, is an easy environment in which to work,"
I am not sure I agree that the Mojo environment is an easy one to work with. More to the point, most companies large enough to have in house developers will also be large enough to justify a Blackberry Enterprise Server.
Why do you feel the Mojo environment isn't easy to work with?
I would like to see enhancements to the tasks app. Specifically I need the option to set up reoccurring tasks as well as integrate the tasks into the calendar so that one view at my day shows appointments as well as tasks.
I left a BlackBerry 8830 to get my new Palm Pre and I AIN'T going back. Java as a phone OS sucks, and so do Blackberry browsers....
"Java as a phone OS sucks"
as do JavaScript as a general purpose language.
PALM IS EVIL!
As someone said upthread, any business would be taking a big risk adopting this kind of beta device. I like the Pre cause it's pretty and the web browser kicks 'berry's ass. But it is still far too slow.
Hey guy without the calendar lag! I want to BE you. Just tested this: 8 seconds elapsed between me tapping "calendar" and having the calendar populated and ready to edit. And this is a speedy day for me. In comparison, I dug out my old Blackberry and it took 3 seconds. My Dad's iphone? 2 seconds. Seriously, what the hell?
My whole business operates around meeting times and making them and rescheduling them quickly. I have been warning my workers away from the Pre. Maybe in 2 years. But by then, think how far along WinMo, BB, and the iPhone will be.
I bought the Pre to support the franchise and based on promises that Palm failed to deliver on. I too am steering people to other devices. Palm abandoned their core philosophy and pushed me back to carrying a PDA and wrestling with a phone that initiates a call before the lastest screen has drawn, but hangs up on my intentional calls if a single hair should touch the screen. The Pre has been a miserable bridge from the Treo and I'm one dispointment away from sybian/Nokia.
@chris1374
How many calendars do you have running SIMULTANEOUSLY?? Ever try adding multiple calendars to Outlook desktop? Try adding 3-4 and see how long it takes to open (hint: NOT seconds)
As for the Pre-if you have half half million calendars added and are trying to OPEN\SYNC ALL at the same time, what do you think will happen?
TIP: Select the calendar you NEED, not ALL, and try that again, I'd put $$ it's 3 seconds or less, and then switching between SINGLE calendars using the menu bar, also 3 seconds or less.
If you need to talk to 4 people, would you line them up and say GO! having them all address you at the same time? Ah, of course not, you'd talk to each in turn no? So why then would you expect your Pre to sync and display 4-5 calendars instantly??
Hey there chris1374 did you forget you can leave that wonderful card open so you can revolve your busy life and work day around your calendar. Try leaving your calendar open on any other phone and then attempt to do something else while it's still an open a card to left (just the way you left it), oh yeah you can't. Well technically, but then it's hold alt and tap back button on the balckberry and on winmo you have to tap three different things to get back to what you were doing. Turn on advanced gestures under screen and lock and you can do a nice shuffle motion between a few cards especially if your shelling out an email and need to get to your calendar or memos for info.
Repeat after me: Searchable/filterable email. I can't believe this ain't in there yet.
But I love the Pre anyway.
Wow...people are jumping all over the place in this comment thread.
- some hate the Pre
- some love the Pre
- some say it has great potential but then backtrack and mention its only 1.1 version.
As for me...I love my phone(palmpre).
The big questions people need to ask are as follows:
- Do other phones have some more advantages/stronger features over the Palm...? Answer: Absolutely YES.
- Did the other phones have the same potential and overall presence in hardware and software when they were FIRST introduced. Answer: Absolutely NO.
- Do the other OS platforms using/expanding their growth potential in similar directions as the WebOS.
Long Answer: Yes.
- Android is in the race and moving fast;
- Apple is if they feel like it...maybe next year...maybe the year after.
- Microsoft can't seem to find the race track but not for lack of trying so they might stumble upon the recipe yet.
- Symbian OS'es need to be dumped.
- RIM, for all its great useability, it needs a total OS overhall and redesign to compete. Current users make think otherwise, but then those same users only think within the box RIM created for them and they are happy with that.
(Moral: Just because your happy in your own little world doesn't mean that you will be in a year when everyone else can do more with less using other products. RIM has made their 'box' so small, they will have to throw it out to evolve.)
I think you need to read the column. It had to do with small businesses adopting the Pre.
For personal use, its a great device if you can be patient with it.
The Pre would be a better business smartphones if the PIM applications were at least as good as their Palm OS equivalent.
Now, date book is almost good, but why - oh why - is the bloody note app a stupid "post-it" app?
Why is there no category anywhere ?
Why isn't there a First name/Last name field in contacts ? Seriously ?
Lots of good ideas in the Pre... but without good PIMs, it's just another wanna-be.
Oh yeah - FYI, Jonathan I Ezor, BlackBerry doesn't need a dedicated server. If you have less than 30 users, you can install the BlackBerry Professional Server, that runs on the same server as Exchange... and your article looks like a commercial.
Thank you for the info. re: BlackBerry Professional Server, but it still requires a separate license (~$850 MSRP for 10 users, according to this site) and additional management skills that smaller businesses may not have in house.
As for memos, I agree, but have concluded that the problem is due to EAS and Google not supporting memos; it's a nice opportunity for Palm or a 3rd party developer to fix.
As for this being a commercial, all I can say is that I've always been this enthusiastic about Palm handhelds. {Jonathan}
There is a first and last name along with middle name. With the contact in edit mode, select the menu and select 'edit name'.
Skykeeper, what in the world are you talking about???? First, you can change the field for last name or first name in contacts, there is even company and first name or company and last name setting to reorganize your contacts (just click on the contacts card, once opened click the upper left area where it says contacts, then tap preferences and accounts, and voila there it is your name fields). Second, what categories are you exactly looking for? Finally, I agree, give the option for list view in memos.
i hear over and over again about the complaints about the palm pre and its web os honestly I think as long as palm is willing to hear and improve on the bugs the potential for the phone and web os is limitless lets not forget even the basic reviews against the iphone and htc hero the pre prevailed or maybe came up a bit short and thats on a stock pre before updates the iphone 3gs which i had is a multimedia phone and to me even came up short to the pre the only thing it has over the pre as of today is more memory because most people who have a pre have homebrew those who have that have a virtual keyboard which is my opinion is not bad and has already had an update homebrew as noted has over a million downloads and with the help of 3rd party developers palm will get the nessary applications to the phone by 2010 yet like one anaylist stated yes apple has thousands of apps but its not the quanity its the quality ive worked with window mobile phones tampered with its operating system tampered with the apples OS and BB and honestly web os has a brighter future the only one that will be rivaling it will be window mobile 7 which ive seen and it is mind blowing but wont be out for another 2 to 3 years apple is maxed out with its capabilities and so is blackberry so understand there will always be complaints or people who just want to find something wrong with anything that is new even though they believe themselves its a wonderfull product but will always be bias and hope its downfall unless millions of people back it or put it on a pedastal ex Iphone or anything on this planet like celeberties or artist one day there hot the next day not so i just think if your a firm believer in evolution and not a bigget or ignorant then stick with the web os and palm they are a proven company and the web os will soon be the new iphone in the years to come.
Dude... Capital letters. Punctuation.
I suppose you might have had some good comments to offer, but who wants to parse through a run-on sentence like that? Seriously, don't they teach proper sentence structure these days?
I got a headache trying to read through cesars post. It was severely hurting my eyes, so now I think I should sleep. Oh by the way garavin, they still teach sentence structure in English classes. I think that guy may need to revisit the basics again.
Thank you for bringing up a post specifically oriented towards business users. I am a sales rep and I need constant access to my customers' information. With my Treo, I can quickly search my entire phone for information... every instance I've visited that customer or referrals.
Also, with my Treo, I can created customized labels for my customer data in the Contacts application. The Pre leaves out this feature, so I do not have access to crucial data.
The Calendar is so slow I can't get anything done easily. I love the fancy graphics and looks of the Pre, but I just can't use it for business!! If I wanted to carry a phone and a separate PDA again, I *might* re-consider the Pre, but not for $200.
RenardRouge, seriously consider that your calendars are cloud based and I am sure speed will come in time but there are other ways to navigate. Under the options for the calendar card you have "Jump to" then of course the many other views for looking through your calendar and oh yes you can leave your calendar open while you do other things. This is something I have not gotten used to myself, but I always remember that's why they designed their OS this way. They designed it this way so you can leave cards open, remember they remain active as cards, so data may be quicker to retrieve (especially those that are cloud based). In my opinion it helps to leave the most important card open, it provides quick access to critical data.
As for your contacts, I remember how they used to have it on the the treo's, but lets get a little creative thinking going. When I looked at my contacts on my pre I saw I can reorder my contacts by business name. Kinda cool right? Now, lets just say we organize contacts by business name and for those contacts that are customers of yours let's add a business name to them called "Customer." Then once you're reorganized by company name you can see your categories and those under that category. I think sometimes people need an outside view of things to help them solve simple tasks. Other than this category I am not sure what else you would be looking for in contacts, or what else you would add?
There are even contact reminders now, so the next time they contact you, you could have had something written down to remind you to ask them. From what I understand it will popup the info you wrote yourself, to remind you to ask your contact.
I agree that one sometimes needs to get creative to come up with solutions to problems, but the problems I have cannot be solved simply by creativity -- I tried it all when I had a Pre. It simply was not useful as a business tool. I understand that speed may come in time, but I need to be productive now. If things improve later I may return to a Pre.
With my Treo I can flick through each day of the week immediately to see what's going on, without having to wait for the day to load. And the calendar *isn't* cloud-based on a Pre - it certainly uses the cloud via syncing but when the phone is turned off the data is still on my phone.
As far as contacts go, I can appreciate the work-around you mentioned, but categorizing them is not the problem -- I need to be able to find information about the customers -- addresses, orders, dates, referrals. These are listed as 1) custom fields in their contact card, and 2) notes attached to their appointments in my calendar. All those were available to me on the Treo via the Search Function and custom fields and I could update those custom fields via an import from an updated Excel spreadsheet using Palm Desktop.
thanks for mentioning document editing. That has been my biggest concern all along. Dataviz now says late this/early next year??!!!!!!! Ouch. They were saying by the end of summer. I certainly would have waited to buy this phone with that caveat.
I for one find the calendar, while slow, much more useful than WM. I don't like keeping my personal and business calendars on my day job's exchange account. The fact that I can keep two google calendars and an EAS calendar in one place, but also separate is wonderful. I can deal with slow for that.
I run a sports organization - my phone is in constant use..... I love the Pre sw. / UI paradigm and was initially very happy.... but now its become super frustrating.... I never have confidence I can juggle calls back and forth, three way etc. etc. I am never even quite sure if the phone application will answer a call or open without a huge wait time... .I picked up a 2G iPhone the other day and it was blazingly fast... made me think twice about the decision to go to Pre... Will never go back to iPhone, but am starting to think about a BB...
Anonymous
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Uncle Sam (and many defense contractors for that matter) does not allow us to use the Pre or iPhone because neither of them have the security that Blackberry delivers. I would love Palm to come out with a more secure way of getting email. Until then, any company that wants to protect it's email will use Blackberry.
What security would that be?
Palm's 1.1 Update added the following that are WinMo email standards.
Palm's EAS implementation now supports several Exchange ActiveSync Policies, including the following:
* PIN/Password Required. IT administrators can ensure a password is assigned to the phone. Administrators can also specify the minimum length of the password.
* Inactivity timeout. IT administrators can ensure that an inactive phone goes into a locked state after a certain time period. You cannot set a higher timeout interval for your phone, but you can set a shorter interval.
* Remote Wipe. IT Administrators can remotely erase all data on a phone from their Exchange console. IT administrators can also have the device wipe itself if an incorrect password is entered more than a specified number of times.
http://www.palm.com/us/business/pre-index.html
Lets just all face it, we have a great market these days for smartphones, no so smart phones, and tools to get our jobs done.
Im by no means as high up the food chain as some that employ smart phones for business. I own my phone for my own uses - but this has been the easiest phone for me to mix business and pleasure on. Its very easy to segregate items, appointments, tasks, etc from one another. This allows me to avoid carrying another phone, which (ESPECIALLY for me) also lets me avoid forgetting any hardware when I leave the house for work.
Regarding the calendar: I have a system in place that works very well.. I use my calendar for all appointments, meetings, and deadlines. Ive not been a long-time smartphone user, and do not find my calendar PAINFULLY slow - faster is always better though. It takes approximately 4-5 seconds to open my calendar. That said, I do wish it defaulted to either the next day, or to monthly (even weekly) viewing because Im rarely opening it to add something to the current day. I have other gripes with how it is displayed (no zoom? what good are youthful eyes if you cant zoom out to that super-small text to see everything at once??).
The biggest issue I can speak to regarding the business environment is that anything which is as open to the 'google' environment as this device, makes the IT department cringe. Its all the more 'touchy' when one carries around large volumes of sensitive documents on their phone of a proprietary nature.
I dont see the Pre as the end-all be-all of business phones, its far from it and will likely remain a step behind others due to its less than solid platform. Yes the phone works great, looks great, but unless you have a vested interest in its physical well-being, its very easy to damage. Ive had 4 of them so far, and all have acted, performed, and felt 'different'. As for why Ive had 4 already, the first had issues with the external speaker. It 'blew' and crackled badly. The next specimen was dropped, which not only scratched the screen, but the next day the earpiece stopped working. The 3rd had the screen split, although I think I received an already damaged phone that had been returned, the crack began in the gesture area, and later split the whole screen. The 4th has been working great, is fast, and has been more stable and predictable. However, this 4th device is the worst of the bunch with regard to fit. The two halves dont align when closed, the detent is sticky when opening and there are obvious signs of wear between the halves on the perimeter edges from opening/closing. The charging door does not close flush, but has not broken yet (I do not own a touchstone, even at $50 it is overpriced), and the ringer switch feels like it will break if I pull on it too hard. The power switch lacks a decent 'click' when activated, unlike my first sample. These are all VERY minor, but were enough for me to notice from one phone to the next. However, combine these observations with the fact that there are such disparities in the descriptions of performance among users, and it makes me think that a pallet of these phones is like the proverbial box of chocolates: "you never know what youre gonna get" (thanks forrest)
As far as hopes for the pre in the future: the touchstone charger was supposed to be the first in a line of 'touchstone' goodies. Here's hoping the future holds those BT keyboards, docks that allow interfacing with projectors, larger batteries or 'holstered' rechargers to help keep up with the day (I make it about 8-9 hrs with no recharge on any given day. This DOES include a lot of heavy usage, but few calls), the ability to sync 'google docs' down to the phone (I have customers that rely on google docs for communication and updates). I would hope that Palm also plans to use that wasted space available that most would call a homescreen or desktop. If ever there was a good place for appointment alerts, flight info dashboards, etc, thats it! The last thing I want to have to do is open a card to find something, give me desktop widgets that I can access at a glance, or a card that does the same - something customizable that allows me to put MY info up there so I can get at it all at once, and respond accordingly.
Two words - file association. The pre will not be a serious enterprise-class device without the ability to open even the most basic of file types typically attached to rmails. Corporate users do not run businesses with .jpg alone.
How about basic phone functions - that ought to be taken for granted in a business class phone - but can't be with the PRE?
including but not limited to:
a horrific dialpad layout for online functions- how many times how you muted or hit spr while moving the handset to and from you ear while in call? or just plain hung up?
volume that is TOO LOW on max setting for anything other than isolation tank use? True for both speaker phone and handset - unless of course you're mid-call and an alarm or alert goes off, damaging your hearing instantaneously, making the low volume issue even worse ....
1995 called and is offering you voice dial .....
not mention basic voice command for all functions
Palm crippled the blue tooth, really?
Please for the love of god, HANG THE @#$% UP when I push the disconnect icon ....
I could go on but my chest feels tight .....
Ahhh! You people have me so frick'n paranoid!! Everytime I see a thread with several post that the calendar is slow I go check mine again to see if it has started happening to mine. Here are my consistent results for the time it takes to load from press: (A) Initial open = less than 4 sec (B) Card view open = 1 sec (C) swipe to the next day = as fast as my thumb can move it!
I see many posts saying otherwise, so I believe you people (I guess), but it must be a Bug on only a few Pre's (forums always exaggerate problems - remember the return rate survey).
I have no delay in my Calendar and I have 5 google calendars and 2 local.
I am running two google calendars, one outlook (EAS) calendar, a sports calendar from the baseball app that they have in the app catalog. I have no real lag that everyone complains about either. I can move from one month to the next as quick as I can flick, I also use the app option in the upper left corner to "Jump To" and even if I select a date a year from now it took about............a second, no more than a second though, to load that day. Load time of any day is just about second, but if I have several calendar events from multiple sources wanting to load that day, maybe just add one more second to it. STOP PANICKING!
This is more along the lines of battery use, but many have complained of the poor battery life. VERY TRUE. I am a heavy user and my Pre makes it only about 5-6 hours. I have "fixed" my problem by buying the clamshell battery charger that sits next to me, charging, while my Pre makes it 5 hours, and then I switch out again. I usually use 2 to 3 batterries for my 16 hour work day. Try it, and you will no longer fear that dead battery.
I was able to speed up the calendar a LOT by removing all the various calendars that had gotten added. Facebook, extra google calendars I didn't need, some others. Left only with my work Exchange, Palm, and the two that seem to HAVE TO stay, movies and flights, it is tons faster than it was. Not ideal still, but far better.
Jonathan's column made some salient points, but I have to agree with some other commenters that, from an enterprise standpoint (even a small to medium enterprise), the Pre isn't quite ready for prime time.
I can't agree with the statement that the Pre has a "robust" browser, though. It's adequate for a 1st-gen release, but a robust browser would support Flash and ActiveX, true copy/paste, and easier navigation (Home/End buttons or gestures to get to the top or bottom of long pages or documents would be welcome). We know that Palm has promised some of this (e.g. Flash support) by end of year, and it looks like there are some incremental improvements coming with WebOS 1.2. That's all to the good and I applaud Palm for pushing forward with updates on a schedule that is quite aggressive in comparison to its competitors. However, I think it's a stretch to label the current browser as robust. Why couldn't Palm have just gone with a mobile Opera? Too many Apple transplants made a medium-rare port of Safari a fait accompli, I suppose.
The calendar app is not as painfully slow for me as some others but it is still sluggish, and not really optimized for business use. Tasks, memos, contacts and calendar all need to be integrated for better PIM functionality. My company uses Lotus Notes (though I suspect we'll be moving to an Exchange environment within a couple of years). A $40 CompanionLink license has me synchronizing my Notes calendar with Google which is an acceptable compromise, but not optimum. My corporate Notes mail is beyond reach unless I forward all of it to Google, and that's a one-way street, so it too is of limited utility. I suppose I could try Classic with Intellisync, but that's more middleware that I really would rather avoid if possible. For now I'm not counting on my Pre as a primary means for conducting business.
My company, like many others, is a BB shop and much as I like my Pre and admire its great potential, I don't see them moving away from BB anytime soon. Were I in a position to influence their mobile computing/commuincation strategy (I'm not) I doubt I'd be able to make a very good case for abandoning BB in favor of the Pre/WebOS at this time. Maybe in a year or two, when BB is looking really dated, but not today.
You have an engaging style Jonathan, and I do enjoy your articles. This one, though, could benefit from a more even-handed treatment of the Pre's shortcomings as well as its advantages.
What mobile device out of the box without installing some sort of support app works with Flash and ActiveX? I don't know of any, and the release of flash will be for several mobile phones. No phone has this capability until flash is released. You can't blame palm for that, flash is just not around for us yet. For those who want all the uses of the internet why not just grab a netbook/laptop? This pre is still a mobile phone at heart, I think it will still only take away a small portion of my computer use until flash gets here, but still once it does it won't replace the true browsing experience of a desktop/laptop, no mobile phone can. Although the pre is close, because a new card will open if needed, kind of like a new window or tab.
Uh, em, the phone app needs work.