Well, it’s finally here. Palm launched the Pre last Saturday, and they are now finally in direct competition with Apple and the iPhone. So which one’s better? For me, I think the verdict is still out.
By now, unless you live under a rock somewhere, I’m sure you know how successful the iPhone has been. They have sold millions of devices in the two years the phone has been out, and users have downloaded over 1 billion applications in the year since the App Store was available. Apple also broke a lot of long standing rules in the cellular industry by having the phone activated through iTunes instead of directly with AT&T, and also by funneling users through iTunes for content instead of through AT&T. The iPhone was also ground breaking in that it introduced the concept of using gestures via a touch screen to interact with the device. What they have accomplished is truly amazing.
Don’t count out Palm just yet. Palm has traditionally been very strong with “prosumers”. This is a term they coined to talk about their sweet spot in terms of users. The demographic Palm originally catered to with the Treo was professional people who purchased their own devices and used it both for work and personal purposes. Add to that the fact that they pioneered the whole smartphone segment 5 years ago, and you have a pretty accomplished competitor for Apple. The new Pre has a slick little physical keyboard, a very nice touch screen, and a gesture base user interface. Sprint says the Pre broke all of their sales records for new devices. Sounds kind of like the iPhone, doesn’t it?
I think the real battle is still to come. WebOS has some very interesting capabilities with it’s application platform. It allows applications to integrate with the web, on device information, and across applications. Of course there aren’t many applications on the device yet. It will be interesting to see what developers come up with on the Pre. Part of what has made the iPhone successful is the slew of applications that have been introduced by developers outside of Apple. I’ll be curious to see how many, and what types of applications get introduced for the Pre.
Recently I decided to make it a point to schedule a few lunch appointments each month with various Small and Medium Business owners to talk about mobile technology. Some of them are people I know well, and some are folks I have just been introduced to. The approach is the same in all cases. We sit down for lunch and talk about their business, how they use mobile technology, how they locate technology, how they acquire it, and what additional mobile solutions they would like to get their hands on. These are business discussions, not technology discussions. 
Apple has continued to push the iPhone outside of the US. Here in America we see the iPhone as a seminal device, changing many of the rules that had been in place between device makers and carriers for many years. AT&T has been rewarded for breaking the mold with Apple. About 40% of iPhone-based subscribers are switching to AT&T from other carriers. 