Palm Pre Update

A couple weeks back I spoke of the Palm Pre in terms so glowing you'd have thought I was on Palm's payroll. That was mostly by design. Like the NBA and their series of ridiculously hyped, but always disappointing, 'Next Jordans'. Stating a phone is comparable to the iPhone is generally not received very well.



With that said, every so often you get a player that does meet the hype- we'll call this the Lebron James effect. And the Palm Pre may have just Lebronzed us all (oh yes, I just adjectivized Lebron's name, incidentally I also adjectivized adjective). Back to the phone, the bottom line is, it's not MJ yet; however, it's so freakishly awesome it just might make the leap in the not so distant future. So let's talk about it...

Pluses:

1. Universal Search: BEST THING EVER for a phone. I don't need to do a series of swipes and gestures to get to where I want to be. I open the keyboard, type what I'm looking for, and a 'real time' list of items corresponding to those letters populate. In two seconds, I can open up pandora, do a google search, get to espn.com, or find my brother's phone number. Universal Search is awesome awesome awesome awesome.
   
   


2. Card System: Yesterday I found myself listening to music, while searching the web, and having a conversation via gchat...on my phone. I was doing all of this at the same time. And it was real easy. As in, so easy I didn't even realize I was doing all that. This is the ingeniousness of the card system.





3. Sprint's Network: ATT's network is limited because the underlying technology is dated. Do a google search for 3g speed tests. Verizon and Sprint, using CDMA technology, flat out kick ATT and T-Mobile's ass. Plus, sprint and verizon, last year, rolled out EVDO 3g. This is second generation 3g that's much faster and much more efficient than what ATT and T-Mobile use.


4. Price Points: Like the last point, this is more a Sprint Pro but it's related to the Pre so I'll include it here. Bottom line, for phones like these you need special unlimited data plans. I've copied and pasted Engadget's price point comparison. It breaks down the bullshit and gives you the bottom line savings when comparing everything equally. Read it, we're talking $1,000+ in savings over a two year contract.
   

On Sprint $99.99 gets you unlimited voice, on-device data (sorry, no free tethering here), and messaging of all types. As we mentioned before, you get Sprint's TeleNav-powered navigation at no additional charge, which most other carriers bill for as an a la carte service. On Verizon, you're paying $99.99 too -- problem is, that's only for voice. The closest thing to unlimited messaging on Big Red's going to be the 5,000 plan, which runs another $20, data for $29.99, and VZ Navigator for $9.99. All told, you're paying $159.97. Similarly, AT&T will cost you $149.99 (of course, turn-by-turn's not an option here) and T-Mobile -- commonly considered the value leader -- takes second place at $124.98. At the end of 24 months, that means you would've shelled out $2,599.75, $4,039.27, $3,799.75, $3,179.51, respectively, after you take the costs of the phones into account; Sprint wins by a country mile, and there's a stunning $1,439.52 savings against its most expensive competitor, Verizon. Sticker prices on phones are subject to near-constant variation thanks to regional fluctuations, rebates, and moon phases, but even if the Storm were free and the Pre were $500, you'd still come out well ahead.

Stepping down to more modest voice allowances, Sprint loses -- but only because T-Mobile cheats. On Sprint, you'll pay $69.99 for 450 minutes, totaling $1,879.75 over the duration of your contract including the cost of the phone. Verizon gets you going for $99.97, or $2,599.27 over 24 months and AT&T goes for $89.99, $2,359.75 in total. T-Mobile doesn't offer a 450 minute individual plan, but you can step down to 300 with no myFaves for $29.99, which means $64.98 with features added or $1,739.51 by the time your two years of indentured servitude is up. So yes, T-Mobile comes out on top here, but only because you're getting short-changed a smidge on the voice bucket.

Minuses

1. No Visual Voicemail: Come on palm, get your shit together. I hate voicemail (have I said that before?), visual voicemail would have been nice. At least then I'd know whose voicemail's I'm ignoring.


2. Battery Life: Battery life for well developed smart phones always seems to be an issue. I suppose this makes sense. If your phone is laptopesque, you're more inclined to use the wifi, stream music, surf the web, etc. The more you do those things, the more you burn through the battery. This phone is no exception. On friday I streamed pandora for a couple hours and used my itunes synced playlist for a couple more, and the battery didn't like it. But I suppose that makes sense. Still, I'm not happy about it.


3. No Indicator Light: If I have a missed call or text message I need to actually turn on the screen to get the notification. You've got a little button that glows right there on the front of the phone. Why not make that your indicator light? A small feature but an unnecessary inconvenience.
   


4. Apps: This is where the iPhone is really superior. There are approximately 30 apps for the Pre. There are 10's of thousands for the iPhone. Pre needs more apps otherwise the phone's capabilities are worthless. Now, to be fair, the Pre just came out and they haven't yet released their SDK (software development kit) yet. The SDK is the infrastructure developers need to make programs. For that reason, this is a wait and see con for the Pre, we'll have to see if developers embrace Palm's app store the way they have for Apple and Google.

For the record, my guess is that they will because 1) SDK will be available sometime this summer which suggests that Palm's striking while the iron's out, 2) WebOS is html based, which is so easy it's actually being taught in our grade schools, and 3) while the Pre may not outnumber the iPhone now, Palm isn't stuck in a long term exclusivity agreement with Sprint. Meaning, sometime next year, you'll see WebOS based phones for ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc., which makes software development more enticing because of the size of the marketplace.

So that's my .02.