GigaOM weighs in on the Palm Pre 21
On Sunday, Om Malik of GigaOM provided some initial impressions of the Palm Pre. Recurring themes include "Palm on fumes" and "the Pre feels plasticky." On the plus side, webOS got some love:
I liked how Palm has turned WebKit into the user interface for the phone. The phone is good at integrating apps with a unified address book and syncing.
Based on his early impressions of the Pre, he stated, "I am not ready to rush to the nearest Sprint store and buy the device. Current Sprint subscribers clamoring for a good smartphone will likely be the early adopters of this phone."
He closed with some interesting comments about the players in the world of smartphones and noted:
... One thing Palm will have going for it: its developer community. Community, a good browser, a decent web-centric (WebOS) operating system, along with the current hype around Pre, should help Palm sell itself to someone more desperate to get into the smartphone business – like Dell.
Ah... the Palm for sale thought resurfaces. Again.
21 Comments
Come on Dell or HP.
Dell, HP or Microsoft.
Dell and HP have a history of competing and sharing licenses for PDAs, and both are probably happy to throw WebOS on some netbooks. Microsoft could use the patents and intellectual resources and stand ready to step up and face iPhone with a strong product that just needs more money.
I'd prefer Dell. They run lean and mean and have a history of innovation.
But yes, if Palm is still independent next year, it will only be because their shares went up like a rocket in the next three months. If Pre sucks, they'll get taken over for their patents, if its a success, they'll get taken over because of their promise and relatively dirt cheap share price.
A take over is probably not a bad thing for Palm users. WebOS could be their most noteable asset.
I think Dell and HP have the wrong culture for Palm. I would rather see Google buy Palm and get rid of or merge Android into WebOS.
I don't think Google would get in the hardware business.
I don't think Palm's in the hardware business, either. A physical device that was web-centric seems like it would be right up Google's alley, so to speak.
How is that there are such wide ranging reviews by mobile/tech analysts over this phone. All the video reviews always have exceptional marks for the Pre. About 50% have had excellent reviews, while the other 50%, mediocre and lackluster. Are there just not many objective folks in blog-land?
What can you say...Apple is like the mafia...lots of people on their "payroll"
i can fully agree with you on that!
What a pathetic response.
The review was pathetic. From the videos I have seen the phone will be nothing short of marvelous!
I have actually seen and touched the pre and it does nt have a plastic feel, it feels wonderful and the size is great. The screen rivals the iphone and it is really, really fast. Wear football or hockey gear to the release, thats all i am saying....
I read that so-called review, it had the same funky smell as that hatchet job from BGR. I find it odd that Om Malik did not test call quality, the camera, GPS, multitasking, basically nothing, where is the video review?. What the heck is a "Super-Quick Hands-On Review?" This comment Is very subjective: "I am not ready to rush to the nearest Sprint store and buy the device. Current Sprint subscribers clamoring for a good smartphone will likely be the early adopters of this phone." It's all about him, another fraud.
There's a pretty funky smell coming from you fanboys, too.
LOL truebrit, you seem to have your emotions on your shirt sleeve, try some Chlorox prewash.
What is odd (or not so odd in the world so ready to bury palm) is that the reviewers don't seem to do a very indepth comparison. They pick a few features and compare them to Iphone and Storm. But Palm has always been about extensive capabilities and none of the reviews I've seen have even scratched the surface of what all this device can do and it's expandability in the future.
From what I can tell, it should be the fastest device on the market, only one with true multitasking, opens with apps in their store on day one, the lowest price debut of any smartphone, and won't require the user to take it home and set it up by thenselves like some unformatted PC from the 80's.
So, go read your MRI and stay off of a forum that you know will not support your POV. Your constant bickering with Pre fans on a Pre site makes you look very insecure and intimidated.
Ah, another one with the fanboy blinders firmly in place.
Can you back that statement up with some arguments?
Or are you just here to troll?
It's not just the current Sprint subscribers clamoring for a smartphone that going to rush for the Pre. I know guys from other networks are going to get this phone too. And as for me I am leaving AT&T for the Palm Pre.
this guy can bite me
Eh, it wasn't too bad. He did say that him encountering the device wasn't planned and that he wished he had more time with it.
That these kinds of reviews are popping up here and there is Palm's fault, really. By not sending review units to anyone, people take what ever they can get.
There are review units out there. But I think the reviews are under an embargo till the end of this week.
I think I saw a video where Walt Mossberg of the WSJ implied he already had one.
I agree with Col. Kernel, it wasn't a glowing review, but it wasn't awful. Slightly lower build quality than a Blackberry (and obviously he means the Curve) is still pretty good, and for those of us comparing to phones -that have touchscreens- it doesn't imply a step down. A smaller keyboard, once you're used to a bigger one, takes some time to learn, which is why a lot of the 700p users went to the 755 even after the Centro was out, so no surprise there either. Since it sounds like he had all of 5 minutes to play, well...
A friend of mine has a phone that can be dropped in water, fall from 5 feet, totally rubber-plated. It doesn't do anything except make and receive phone calls, but it feels really solid. :)