Palm Pre vs. iPhone: The Gmail Advantage

By MG Siegler

Google has a post today on its blog outlining how many of its applications are built right into the Palm Pre’s webOS. That’s hardly surprising given that it’s an OS built around the web technologies Google knows and loves: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. But buried in the post is a little nugget of information that is sure to enrage some iPhone owners: The Pre will support push Gmail from the get-go.

Push technology allows an email to come to your phone without the user having to specifically call up to the server to get it (known as “pull”). This means near instantaneous receipt of messages as opposed to your phone being set to check for new messages at set intervals, which is how Gmail configured through the iPhone’s mail client currently works. Push Gmail has been rumored for a little while. But now it looks like Google is ready to tout it.

Push email is a feature that made BlackBerry devices so popular back in the day, but now it’s on a number of phones — including the iPhone with MobileMe email and Yahoo Mail. But, despite users clamoring for push Gmail since the iPhone 2.0 software launched last year, it’s still not available. The Pre is able to do it because it supports the IMAP IDLE protocol, according to the post.

Push Gmail also not surprisingly works on Google Android phones. But there is no word on when it will be available on the iPhone other than some short messages in the past that Google was working on it. Considering the budding rivalry between the iPhone and the Pre, and Apple’s close ties to Google, I’m betting we’ll see it come soon to the iPhone as well. Who knows, we could even hear about it at WWDC on Monday — let’s hope.

Original post

Comments

[CoverIsBetter:]

Does it really take that long to get a GMail message? Forgive my stupidity here. I use it on a Blackberry and from a laptop running Google Chrome at home, and the speed has never been a problem.

Can somebody explain the exact scenario where polling the email server every few minutes is not good enough?

Jun 05 02:16 PM

[Julian Ivan...:]

The iPhone does support the IMAP IDLE protocol afaik.

Jun 05 02:46 PM

[Sidweaver:]

There's a reason iPhone does not support IDLE - it drains your battery!!! Have you noticed the Pre battery is only expected to last through the day, at most? This is one reason why.

Really, IDLE is not that big a deal. You might get that email two minutes later by pulling. If you need the data faster, you should be using text or twitter or some more appropriate technology.

Jun 05 05:46 PM

[PJ Louis:]

When Push technology was developed years ago it was a major breakthrough. However, it was and still is a feature that frankly is lost on a consumer. In other words, with current handsets, the Pull reconciliation that is done is not a big deal to the consumer. Think about it, so you wait a few minutes or even an hour before your main mailbox reconciles with your handset. Isn’t that fast enough? If that is not fast enough than maybe plain old SMS-based text messaging will do?

The fact is Push technology was a major network management breakthrough. Rather than handsets wasting bandwidth requesting reconciliation or making queries, carriers and ISPs can simply push messages out to the handset. Back in the early to mid-1990s Push technology increased network efficiency and it was a way for companies to push information to you that you would not necessarily ask for. Push technology served and still does serve a variety of marketing and operational needs. However, is it a feature that consumers will consider a market draw? I don’t think so.

Unlike the iPhone, the Pre supports multi-tasking and multi-touch. These are features that will likely draw consumers.

In the end time will tell.

Jun 06 09:19 PM

[PJ Louis:]

Let me clarify myself, the iPhone supports multi-touch. It has improved over time.


On Jun 06 09:19 PM PJ Louis wrote:

> When Push technology was developed years ago it was a major breakthrough.
> However, it was and still is a feature that frankly is lost on a
> consumer. In other words, with current handsets, the Pull reconciliation
> that is done is not a big deal to the consumer. Think about it, so
> you wait a few minutes or even an hour before your main mailbox reconciles
> with your handset. Isn’t that fast enough? If that is not fast enough
> than maybe plain old SMS-based text messaging will do?
>
> The fact is Push technology was a major network management breakthrough.
> Rather than handsets wasting bandwidth requesting reconciliation
> or making queries, carriers and ISPs can simply push messages out
> to the handset. Back in the early to mid-1990s Push technology increased
> network efficiency and it was a way for companies to push information
> to you that you would not necessarily ask for. Push technology served
> and still does serve a variety of marketing and operational needs.
> However, is it a feature that consumers will consider a market draw?
> I don’t think so.
>
> Unlike the iPhone, the Pre supports multi-tasking and multi-touch.
> These are features that will likely draw consumers.
>
> In the end time will tell.

Jun 06 09:59 PM

[Fighting Yoda:]

Email push/pull is a trivial feature especially for a phone.

Jun 07 12:04 AM

[david levy_:]

A hosted Microsoft Exchange account supports not only full push email, synchronization of ALL mail folders (Inbox subfolders, Sent Items, etc.,) but full, realtime synchronization of Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks, as well. Your truly becomes a full Outlook/Entourage client. I have personally configured for my clients and can verify hosted Exchange (Activesync) is supported flawlessly on iPhone, all windows based phones, PalmOS, Blackberry, and some other OSes from Nokia and Symbian. I have not tested support for Pre, but Palm states that it is fully supported.

Monthly cost for hosted exchange runs about $9 - $19/month. My clients are using a version that runs $14/month, with unlimited mailbox size.

Hosted Exchagne is the most efficient and comprehensive mailbox/cloud computing mailbox product on the market...imho.

Jun 08 06:30 AM

[atlasman:]

I do not get it as well. If I want email and it is not already loaded on my iphone, I hit a button and it shows up in a fews secs. If I do not want to do that, I just lower the amount of time between pulls. I have an iphone and honestly do not love it for the touch screen keyboard, but I would never trade it for osmething this trivial. Give me an iphone with some form of flip out real keyboard and I would trade it in in a heart beat.
-AM

Jun 08 07:23 AM

[Rick Krementz:]

On a Treo, one has to log into the Gmail site and refresh. If you don't, you do not ever know you have relieved an email. So, this is great news to upgrade to a Pre.

In a PC browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.), the Inbox is refreshed every minute or so automatically. For me, that is close enough to real time to be useful. Blackberry has automatic refresh, too, I believe.


On Jun 05 02:16 PM CoverIsBetter wrote:

> Does it really take that long to get a GMail message? Forgive my
> stupidity here. I use it on a Blackberry and from a laptop running
> Google Chrome at home, and the speed has never been a problem. <br/>
>
> Can somebody explain the exact scenario where polling the email server
> every few minutes is not good enough?

Jun 08 10:07 AM

[raseri:]

A little thing we like to call battery life.


On Jun 05 02:16 PM CoverIsBetter wrote:

> Does it really take that long to get a GMail message? Forgive my
> stupidity here. I use it on a Blackberry and from a laptop running
> Google Chrome at home, and the speed has never been a problem. <br/>
>
> Can somebody explain the exact scenario where polling the email server
> every few minutes is not good enough?

Jun 20 11:37 AM