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The D: All Things Digital Conference kept attendees through the final session by scheduling a demo of the new Palm Pre as the very last event. The ballroom was packed for the final keynote interview with Jon Rubinstein, executive chairman of Palm (PALM) and Roger McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners, Palm's major backer.
The device looks like a hybrid of a Blackberry (RIMM) and iPhone.
In a funny, Apple (AAPL)-style video that preceeded the interview, McNamee raved that everyone with an iPhone is going to run out and get a Palm Pre as soon as their contracts expire. He later clarified that he thinks this new device, that conveniently has a keyboard in addition to a touch screen, will appeal to regular phone users. He also noted that it's outfitted with a mirror, one of many reasons it's aimed to appeal to women, which drew some barbs from Kara Swisher ("a lady phone?"). McNamee's Elevation invested $425 million in the Pre and his excitement was palatable.
The Palm Pre has many of the same elements as an iPhone, but aims to be even more intuitive and useful by "blending local device content and web content." Instead of having to open up a web browser before you start to search for something, on the Pre you just start typing and various options immediately pop onto the screen, asking you if you'd like to search within your contacts, Google (GOOG), or even on Twitter. (What a vote of confidence for Twitter search!). It's easy to toggle between applications, you can effectively keep a bunch of windows open at once, they look like cards and you can toggle between them.
The fact that it's not an Apple device doesn't seem to pose many problems: it still allows you to sync directly to iTunes to upload your music (the fact that Apple has gotten rid of DRM really helps). But when you're in the music player and want to buy a song, the Pre first takes you to Amazon's (AMZN) music store.
The Pre will launch with about a dozen applications, including Pandora, Fandango, and Citysearch. The idea is that these applications will automatically integrate with your location, and information like your calendar and address book. For example, pull up the Fandango application and it automatically sorts theaters based on your location and it saves the information onto your calendar.
I'll be curious to see how well the applications work. But there's no question that this integration of web access and saved information is the future... Why have to ask your device to take you to the web? If there's one thing that this conference validates, is the fact that people want all the best of the web at their fingertips, all the time.
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I still am not betting on them.
but RIMM might worry a bit since the Pre IS competition for it.
A lady phone is not going to appeal to guys.
Pre is gonna gang up with iPhone in eating up the BOGOberry market shares.
Wild prediction: early next year Palm is acquired by beleaguered Dell as it searches for a way to make money.
As a graduate of Princeton you should understand the difference between palatable and palpable.
Verizon used blackberry to respond to the iPhone sales blitz by litrrally giving blackberries away. That created a lot of resentments among the customers who got the blackberries, especially the ones who bought the more expensive blackberry storms and bolds instead of the cheaper blackberry curves which are simple cellular phones, not smartphones. This Verizon / blackberry campaign concerns only about Verizon's worry over their customers jumping over to ATT, and blackberry's worry about losing out on market shares. Well, Verizon gets to keep some of their subscribers, blackberry becomes BOGOberry, in fact, blackberry becomes BerryCombo now that you pay $45 per month for 2 blackberries and 1 Samsung. In short, BOGOberry is trying to switch from a tattered celebrity niche image to a commodity status, trying to make smartphones commodity items. This turnabout of BOGOberry is brought about when iPhone totally destroyed BOGOberry's prestigeous status and myth, BOGOberry became an old and passe thing overnight thanks to iPhone. The trauma to BOGOberry is severe and permanant.
Pre is the first iPhone trooper, second-in-command, of waves of able body iPhone troopers landing on the formerly blackberry turf.... The Eagle has landed, and BOGOberry is retreating rapidly. Allies coming from Nokia, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony, Motorola, perhaps Microsoft, Dell, HP etc
D-Day for BOGOberry is coming. Bring on the Coyotes.
Palm is American.
The Dom Perignon shall be delicicious.
"Well, Verizon gets to keep some of their subscribers, blackberry becomes BOGOberry, in fact, blackberry becomes BerryCombo now that you pay $45 per month for 2 blackberries and 1 Samsung."
What did you mean by this? You can now get 2 blackberries and a Samsung and only pay $45 per month service fee? That is just flat out false. The bogo offer requires you to sign two 2 year contracts with data plans. Please elaborate on your faulty math if you ever care to use facts.