A brief history of the Palm Pre

It was just last Thursday that Palm unveiled the Pre and webOS, and the response has been nothing short of overwhelming. Here’s a quick recap of the whirlwind week that was.

For starters, you can catch the full video of the unveiling of our new platform here. The Pre was almost immediately recognized with several prestigious awards:

CNET
Palm Pre wins Best of CES 2009 and People's Voice Award

LAPTOP
Best of CES 2009

Popular Mechanics
Top 18 Products at CES 2009: PM Editor's Choice Awards

The media coverage of the Pre and webOS has been wide-ranging (the wordcloud below gives a sense of the coverage), with stories reflecting the immediate 

excitement around the new device, the longer-term potential of the new platform, and the drama around Palm’s “comeback.” Here are a few of our favorite stories and headlines:

CNBC
David Pogue “It’s the belle of the ball”

CNET-TV
Interview with Stephane Maes

Newsweek
Palm’s New Reach, Once a tech industry heavyweight, Palm was nearly knocked out by its competitors. Can its latest smartphone help spur a comeback? 

New York Times
Palm Unveils iPhone Competitor, the Pre

USA Today
Palm's new Pre smartphone gets lots of good buzz

Dow Jones
UPDATE: Palm Shares Soar As New Smartphone Wins Wall Street Praise

Financial Times
Palm: Not dead yet

Associated Press
Palm unveils new smart phone, operating system 

Bloomberg
Palm Pre Takes On BlackBerry, IPhone in Comeback 

San Francisco Chronicle
CES09: Palm silences doubters with new OS and phone 

TheStreet
Palm Pre: iPhone Killer? By Gary Krakow

MSNBC
Palm unveils 'Pre' smartphone device, new OS 

Yahoo! Tech
Palm gets back into the game with touchscreen Pre, WebOS 

Gizmodo
Palm Pre Hands-On First Impressions

Engadget
Live from Palm's CES press conference

CrunchGear
CES 2009: Palm Press Conference 

PC Magazine
The Palm Pre: CES 2009's Hottest Product 

InformationWeek
Palm's Pins Comeback Hopes On 'Pre' Smartphone 

CrunchGear
“Hands on” with the Palm Pre

BoingBoing
Seven features that make the Palm Pre better than the iPhone

Jon Zilber

Comments

[Stefan Constantinescu]

Fox Business News, CNBC, Popular Mechanics and LaptopMag links are broken. Just a little FYI.

[Jon Z (at Palm)]

Thanks -- they're fixed now.

[Grant Root]

Congratulations, Palm! I hope that now the nature of posts to this blog will change pretty dramatically. Up to now almost everything posted here has been fluff, with very little real news for customers deeply concerned how Palm would support their existing devices and develop new ones. Presumably this was because of "radio silence" while the new webOS and Pre were developed in secrecy. Now that it's all out in the open, I hope that this blog will start focusing on solid information and addressing the serious concerns of Palm's loyal customers.

[Palm, Inc.]

"Fluff," huh? Some of us prefer to think of it as "banter." But yes, we've been desperately anxious to share the news about the Pre and webOS. And as more details and specifics become available, you'll see it here. (And via palm_inc on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/palm.) -- Jon Z

[JayCanuck]

I'm mainly hoping my universal HID/SPP bluetooth keyboard will work on the Pre. And even then, I gotta hope all the apps like email, calendar, DocsToGo, etc. support landscape. Time will tell...

[Eric]

The Pre is exciting, but I don't understand some of the decisions Palm has made. It seems like Palm often forces its customers to accept some kind of silly compromise.

I really like the Pre's hardware, its design, its gui are all very exciting. I was uber excited to get one... then I start learning of what you are leaving out and now I'm either not going to buy one, or I am at least going to wait till the second version.

Now why would Palm do that? Why would you take a loyal customer (since 1997) and push me away instead of making the decision to upgrade a no brainer!

Here's what I mean...

1. SD Cards... I can't live with only 8GB of storage. I need to be able to accommodate all kinds of databases, audio files, video files, pictures, spreadsheets, etc. My kids use 16GB cards in their $50 LG phones to handles all their music files. Its silly to think only a tiny minority of "power users" will want expandable memory and more that 8GB. just silly.

2. The Palm Desktop... I understand the marketing value of hyping the "cloud concept". And perhaps I may want to go that route someday, but currently I don't. Why force me into a new and underdeveloped, untested paradigm? Why not give me the CHOICE of still syncing with one desktop/laptop computer and still leveraging the usefulness of the Palm Desktop? I like the Desktop, it does exactly what I want it to. Its one of the most used applications on my laptop. It just seems silly for Palm to force me away from one of its existing products that I really like and into a competitors product like Google Calender, which by the way is ridiculously underpowered and inconvenient. Why? Just silly.

3. Backward Compatibility. I have hundreds of dollars invested in Palm OS apps. I have been able to make my Palm Centro do all kinds of things that I NEED and use everyday. I can do things that make my iPhone friends jealous. I realize Palm wants to start fresh but why turn your back on a whole plethora of applications that could make your device stronger? Why must your loyal customers not only shell out hundreds to by the new Palm device but also pay hundreds to replace all your old software? Or worse yet, the software I rely on every day may not even be available on the Pre because they have burnt their developers twice already. This is just silly, why doesn't Palm leverage the fact that there are great Palm OS database out their, robust calculators, custom widgets, Bibles, Books, dictionaries, etc. Why make your users wait years to get a shiny new slick device then poke them in the eye before they even can buy it. Just silly.

It just seems like Palm included so much good stuff in their new device and stopped just short of making it an easy decision for their existing customers. Palm, give your users some good choices... SD Card expansion... sync to the cloud, or Outlook (yuk), or the Palm Desktop (yay)... let them use new apps when they become available and yet still able to leverage their old apps. Reward your loyal customers by making the upgrade to a Pre a "no brainer" instead of making me think twice about it.

Respectfully,
Eric

[Steve]

I'm excited for Palm, the new Pre looks like a great product. But I'm actually more excited about WebOS, I think Palm should REALLY consider a touch screen netbook/tablet sort of thing! also, with wifi capability, a Palm Pre/Pilot (without the phone) seem like a no-brainer as well. I really hope and think the Pre will be a hit, and I look forward to other WebOS devices.

[David Andrade]

Palm - I love the Pre and WebOS. Great job and I can't wait to get one!! It looks like Apple and RIM are going to have to do some work to live up to this device!

I do have a few suggestions though.
1. Add a microSD card slot
2. Bring back the IR port
3. Make sure this comes out on more carriers than just Sprint
4. Help Styletap create a Garnet OS emulator for the Pre.

Thanks!!

DA - long time Palm User.

[Robin Arnold]

As a Sprint/Treo user I am very excited and hope that Sprint makes the Pre accessible and affordable. Of course I would love to be specially selected to test the Pre on behalf of non profits everywhere.

[JayCanuck]

I personally love the look and style of the Pre. Sure it's a smaller screen than my TX, but I'm willing to compromise. My only concern would be Palm limiting the Pre's bluetooth like Apple did. I'd kill to be able to use my dual HID/SPP bluetooth keyboard with the Pre. Not to mention, having landscape versions of all Pre apps would be handy (I hear only Photos and the Brower will be landscape compatible which makes me sad). Though I am hopeful that Palm can get that and more done for the Pre's release :-D

[Mark]

Can someone at Palm please explain to a loyal Palm user (started with the Handspring!) why in the world you decided to release the phone to 1 carrier? How can this possibly be good business? There is so much hype right now around this phone that you should be capitalizing on it by offering cross-carriers. This was a stupid decision.

Sometimes I am not surprised why Palm is in the shape it is in.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

JayCanuck -- details will be released in the first half of this year. Stay tuned and thanks for listening.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Eric -- where do I start? First, thank you SO much for your passion and feedback and for taking the time to write us. Long time Palm customers are vital to Palm and your feedback is very important.

Second, with every product Palm develops, there are compromises that we have to make. It's simply the nature of the beast. A final product has not been announced yet so please stay tuned and please keep the valuable comments coming.

Thanks for reading.

[Eric]

I don't know why my comments aren't showing up but I really believe in Palm so I'll give it one more try.

When I saw Eric's post, I almost though it was mine since it looked very similar to the one I posted earlier and that my name is also Eric.

I see the Pre as an excellent device and hope it will replace the iPod, java phone and Zire 72 combo I have going on right now. I am a loyal Palm customer and have always valued the large number of apps and developers. I do somewhat understand that by removing a support layer for older applications, you are removing some bloat from the OS but what really disappoints me is the lack of programming support. Most of the apps was dependent upon were freeware or open source and I just hope that they will be ported to the Pre. This is why you need support for more languages than just javascript, html and css. Perl is also a very popular language on the web, Python is great and easy for writing programs and I would like C/C++ but I can only dream for that. For games Palm should take a look at porting the SDL libraries. Why put that beautiful screen and processor to waste?
Also since this is webOS and a large amount of the web is flash content, support for a full flash player would be great (especially if it supported the keyboard for flash games!!!)

I would also really like some kind of expandible memory, either by including an SD card or creating 2 different models, 1 with 8GB int and one with an SD card slot. Or create a micro-usb extension users can buy that "blends" into their device and can use SD cards. The new SDXC cards coming out are a great piece of technology to get on board with.

I also like the idea of using an app market but don't make it the only method of installing apps, if you want to simplify it for the average user, at least provide an advanced way to over ride it so people who want to test apps or try ones before they are added to the market can.

Also is the firmware on these devices upgradable like it is for the Android, this way you can provide updates for people since the web is constantly evolving and people want their electronics to be up to date with the standards for at least a few years after purchase.

I love Palm and really hope this device does well. I always tell my friends that the iphone is just a well-marketed piece of junk but I never know what to tell them to get instead. If I like this device, I will recommend it to everyone since I'm usually the guy people ask about tech stuff. Just remember to bring it to bell in Canada so I can get one since bell has the best mobile internet plans (some devices such as the Windows Mobile HTC touch get unlimited internet for $10/month!)

Thanks for Listening!
Eric

[Andy L.]

Eric asked, "2. The Palm Desktop... I understand the marketing value of hyping the "cloud concept". And perhaps I may want to go that route someday, but currently I don't. Why force me into a new and underdeveloped, untested paradigm? Why not give me the CHOICE of still syncing with one desktop/laptop computer and still leveraging the usefulness of the Palm Desktop?"

Nobody's forcing you to do anything. You choose to move/upgrade/crossgrade/whatever to a Pre, or not to. If your current solution works for you, then clearly the Pre may not be the device for you.

I'm constantly amused (I was going to say surprised, but that's not quite true) by how many people get so indignant that what _they_ need clearly _must_ be what's best for everybody, and take such a self-centered, close-minded view of new products from companies without realizing that a majority of customers may, in fact, be perfectly happy with the product. To paraphrase Lincoln, you can't please all of the people all of the time.

FWIW,
Andy

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Thanks, Steve, for the comment. We're obviously excited with the reaction the webOS has received in the Palm community, as well. And if you think you're excited, check out David Pogue of the New York Times in this hilarious video.

Thanks for reading.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/technology/david-pogue/1194811622273/index.html

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

David -- Thanks for the positive feedback. Your suggestions are noted and certainly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hey Robin -- thanks so much for the kind words and thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

JayCanuck -- our design team would be thrilled to hear that. Thanks for your continued support.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Mark -- we appreciate the loyalty and believe our shape is improving day-by-day. Thanks for the constructive feedback and thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Eric -- thanks for the comments and suggestions and keep them coming. Keep up to date on the latest developer information by subscribing to our developer-centric RSS feed at the below link.

Thank you for listening.

http://developer.palm.com/

[Rick Vach]

Nice, but the coming-out party is over. Let's get past the fell-goodness and start telling us about all the third-party vendor you are working with to develop applications, and the other networks you will work with (hope it is not ONLY Sprint). The iphone's success is all about its numerous wonderful apps that are available.

[Semyon-punk]

I am sure that this devise will be very good and I shall buy it in future.

[Edward Doan]

Obviously, folks at Palm did take Engadget's "intervention" post to heart! This is a fantastic way to bring Palm back.

For the legions of legacy PalmOS users (11 years here!), what are the migration options? PalmOS application support hasn't been addressed. What about migrating old records from Palm Desktop?

[Bill in Oregon]

Not sure now...

I am a loyal Palm user(the Original Palm Pilot 5000, Palm Pilot Professional, Palm III, Palm Treo 650, and currently the Palm Treo 700p). I was excited to hear of the additions of WiFi and GPS to the Palm Treo Pro, but disappointed that it didn't use the Palm OS (only Windows Mobile). I was prepared to finally drop my beloved Palm OS for Windows because of the Palm Treo Pro's GPS and WiFi. When the Palm Pre was announced, I first thought that all my prayers were answered. Now I have my doubts with the news that a) there is no memory card slot b) it doesn't sync directly c) it isn't backwards compatible.

I have have many Palm OS based applications on my Treo. I use iSilo and Mobipocket to carry reference books with me. It appears that these will no longer work.

I like being able to have a file emailed to my Treo..and then saving that file to an SD card for transfer to a laptop or desktop. I like taking photos..and saving them to a card.

My Treo is primarily for business. I need email access, MS Outlook synchronization, and web access...but like GPS, Wi-fi, etc. I am now REALLY on the fence as to my next step.

Can somebody explain the workarounds that are possible with a Pre.

Hoping for the best...but deflated for now.