Palm Pre Sweeps CNET Best of CES Awards

Everyone knows who CNET is. They were a gadget site before gadget sites became en vogue. Heck, my mom looks at CNET (Hi, Mary) and she thinks QWERTY is a Moroccan chicken dish. The point is, CNET has built up some major credibility the last 15 years, providing technology news and reviews. In the past, they've become very familiar with Palm products, loved them some of Palm's products and others...well, not so much.

Each year, at the Consumer Electronics Show, CNET and the Consumer Electronics Association hand out The Best of CES awards, which “represent the cream of the crop at the most important trade show in the consumer electronics industry,” according to CNET. The CNET editorial team recognizes the best new products at the show with awards in ten categories, an overall Best of Show award, and the People's Voice award that's selected by CNET's online audience.

You may have heard that Palm recently announced a new operating system, Palm webOS, along with the first phone that webOS will run on, the Palm Pre. Well we just returned from Las Vegas, where CES is held and we're ecstatic to report that the editors at CNET have bestowed upon the Palm Pre three Best of CES awards: the Best Cell Phone / Smartphone, the People's Voice award, decided by over 10,000 CNET readers, and, last but not least, the Best in Show Award, given to the best overall product at the show. This is the first time ever that CNET has awarded all three awards to the same product. Check out this video of CNET Senior Editor, Bonnie Cha and Palm Vice President of Smartphone Product Marketing, Stephane Maes, walking through the Palm Pre.

The indomitable David Pogue of The New York Times, was also quite impressed with the Palm Pre, calling it the “Belle of the Ball” and the “Buzz of CES,” while appearing on CNBC. And on Engadget, former SNL veteran and future Conan O’Brien replacement, Jimmy Fallon, was also very impressed with the Pre.

Needless to say, much more to come on the Palm blog regarding the Palm webOS and Palm Pre, so stay tuned.

Alex H.
Edelman for Palm

Comments

[Hiker24]

The Pre looks great. Too bad it is with Sprint. Will you eventually use A T & T or Verizon?

[Uncle Dad]

The Palm Pre definitely is no more in the category of smartphones but ushered into the 21st century INTELLIGENT PHONES ERA, Bravo Palm and the Developers

[Raj]

Good One

[Ronald Quint]

Yes I believe it is transcended to a newer, higher level of Intelligent Phone. I like the whole idea and design. Congratulations to all on the Palm team !

[Wladimir]

Excelent work... Palm, you have surprised the tech world!

Now, please allow us to write software with perl(6) (or python) instead of javascript :D

Even when grafitti (a tool i use EVERYDAY) is deprecated, i´m still buying a Palm Pre!

[Scott]

Congrats. Now get to work and get the thing shipping.

[roman]

congrats Palm - you really pulled it off, and more than satisfied a lot of cynics like me.

[Jason McHuff]

Congratulations. Its nice to see Palm making some new devices. It looked like Palm was going downhill; however, it should be noted that this was after being the premier handheld computer maker for around 10 years. However, as someone who's on his third Palm OS device (Handspring Visor Deluxe, later Palm Zire 71, currently Palm TX), its sad to see Palm OS go. Though I do understand how Palm is no longer in charge of Palm OS and how Palm OS is pretty old.

[cris]

Congratulations.

A suggestion

I know Palm is leaving behind PDAs, but think about this, a simplified Pre without phone capaility, just like what apple did with iPhone and iPod touch, might be a great business idea. I know I would be extremely interested!

PS. don't get me wrong, I was just praising apple's business practice, by no means I think iPhone is a better product than Pre. On the contrary, I believe Pre is leap and bound ahead of anything in the market. The truly multi-tasking operation with card system and individuality (no need to rely on a computer) is providing users a real alternative to computers.

This is an amazing product. I hope Palm and Sprint price it well. and Palm utilizes this creation well (by developing a WebOS PDA, and by opening deeper structure to developers)

Good luck!

[Chris Cowles]

mobile.palm.com has no info on the Pre. I can't read about it on my Treo. Not good.

[Jon Z (at Palm)]

Chris -- we feel your pain! Like the Palm webOS, the Palm.com website has just gotten an overhaul of its own, and the mobile version is in the works.

[james rose]

as a longtime palm and sprint user i was blown away by the rollout. well done! i can only say that i hope you add flash support and vieo to the camera before releasing it on sprint. also in working with sprint, ya gotta keep it at a $200 price point. rebates, instant savings, whatever, that seems to be the price point that will attract mass people to the phone.

[Harald Sommer]

I would like to know why there is no information on the international, especially German, website. Always behind! Who will be the provider for the Pre in Germany? Waiting for the product availablity in Germany!

[Bret Clement]

That media coverage out of CES was great. Kudos to Palm's design and product team (also to Alex H. and pr team). But the CNET People's Voice award in particular is a great compliment to your product teams.

I'm sort of bummed I upgraded to a different phone this past November. Looking forward to my contract being up so I can go back to Palm.

[David Andrade]

Nice job Palm. A few suggestions for the Pre and WebOS.
1. work with developers to create a Palm OS (Garnet) emulator
2. add a microSD card slot
3. create and host a web based version of Palm Desktop
4. Make sure Memos exist on the Pre. Memos, and the ability to categorize them, is one of the most useful apps.

Thanks!

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Hey Hiker 24 -- thanks for the kind words. Carrier preference is very subjective and Palm and Sprint have always -- going as far back as the Treo 300 and, more recently, the Palm Centro -- had a history of providing innovative products to our customers. We enjoy a great relationship with all our U.S. - based and International carrier partners, however. Thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

James -- appreciate the love, the longtime support for Palm and the suggestions. As always, thanks for reading.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Bret -- thanks, much. We were over the moon with all the coverage, but the CNET awards really blew us away. Thanks for reading.

[Robert c.]

I have a Palm T/X handheld and have been waiting for years for the
> right Palm smart phone to be developed before I make “the switch.” The
> *Palm Pre* seems to be the one, except it’s not compatible with my
> Palm OS programs. For example, the mobile version of my office
> management system runs only on the Palm OS platform. The program hot
> syncs changes in my business database between my Vista PC and the
> Palm. Will the Styletap Palm OS emulator, if developed, enable me to install and run
> legacy Palm software on the *Palm Pre?

[Karla]

I'm so excited! I've been a Sprint user for a loooooooong time and have been bummed at the lack of exciting phones. I love Sprint and don't plan to leave; even though my all my friends have iPhones and Storms, and rub it in. Anyway, I hoped Sprint would be given a great phone in the future and the Pre seems to be it! I can't wait to see it in person! :D

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

David -- thanks for the kind words and suggestions and stay tuned via the Palm blog. More to come.

[Alex H. at Edelman for Palm]

Robert -- appreciate the loyalty and the fact that we've developed something that catches your fancy. It's hard to comment on something like this so early in the game, but stay tuned for answers. Thanks for reading.

[Michael J. Barnes]

I have been using a Handspring/Palm phone since before there were Treos. I actually used the Handspring Phone module. I have had most generations of the Treo and switched to a Centro. I have taken up for them when my friends have pointed to their pretty iPhones and explained that my phone has done everything the iPhone does well before they even came out.

I'm REALLY excited by the Pre. I've been waiting for it for two years after all. However, there are two things that just stop me in my tracks that I think need to be included.

1. EXTERNAL STORAGE. 8 GB could be filled up very quickly with sound files. The Pre would push the iPhone aside with this capability.

2. GARNET EMULATION. I know that it's a new OS, but there are some apps that I can't live without that I can't imagine being ported over quickly. Preferably this would have some type of HotSync capability (bluetooth is fine)

I'll be patiently awaiting it to get to GPS phone. Thanks Palm for bringing it back to the table.

[MikeW]

I'm a Sprint and Treo user, so I'm looking forward to the Pre's arrival. I hope Palm has solved my biggest pet peeve about the Treo 700p: Bluetooth Hands-Free dialout is locked by the PDA password. My car has a fine hands-free voice dialing system, but I can't place calls with it unless every time I get in the car,
I remove the password from the Treo!
That or try to enter it while I'm driving -
Dangerous!

A normal headphone jack would be appreciated too.

I tried to post this the other day. Could you respond please? At least please pass along this serious suggestion. Feel free to edit the posting as necessary.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Mike

[Ed]

As an industry veteran, I think the Pre will have a very rough time getting traction at this stage of the market without the ability to bring along the large number of at least Palm 5 legacy applications and the associated dedicated developers and users. Why Palm doesn't leverage its enormous base of existing apps looks like a fatal marketing misstep. Without legacy apps the Pre is just another new OS. Smart phone users want applications and Palm alone is in no position to deliver even a fraction of what's necessary to get a savvy smart phone user to get excited about the Pre.