Telstra exec: new Android-based HTC phone ‘better’ than Pre – Engadget.
In my opinion, Palm Pre is the new bar as far as phone concept is concerned. Execution another matter, the touch screen plus physical keyboard combo in an attractive chassis with a sharp GUI is the recipe that the G1, iPhone, and Storm miss by a margin. So for me, I gotta give props to Palm for starting with the right ingredients.
Of course, the comments from the likes of Telstra are inevitable, and there is some serious weight to their stance…. however, I am not convinced it will be an HTC device that rocks the world via Android, but it will probably be someone… and soon. So while I like the Pre and all, I am also quite confident that Palm did little else than show the Android world how to wrap up some nifty features into a nicer piece of hardware. I say Android because they are coming off a strong act 1, even if it was severely lacking in my eyes, and while it would serve Apple and BlackBerry to take a lesson from Palm, I doubt they will… they have their core approach that hasn’t failed them yet, whereas the Android world is just getting their legs under them.
For all the Palm hype and positive reception to the Pre, sadly, I just don’t see Palm keeping up with Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Microsoft when it comes to keeping the innovation at the edge. Apple’s frontierism, Googles openness, BlackBerry’s faithful, and Microsofts relentless cashiness will not be easily thwarted. Brutal world we live in.
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Moribund Palm, in danger of becoming just a Windows Mobile running dog with lackluster handhelds, seems to have scored with its introduction this week of the Palm Pre 3G smartphone, powered by the new webOS operating system. But how does it stack up against Apple’s iPhone?
For the Pre, Palm created a more capable Web browser than its previous offerings. And the company seems to have designed the phone to be smoothly and deeply integrated with the Web sites, data and applications mobile users increasingly rely upon.
Overall, the Pre seems to be a match for the iPhone in many areas. The question is whether Palm’s Web integration focus represents a “user experience” advance that can draw and hold end users.
“It’s not an iPhone killer, nor a BlackBerry killer, but it doesn’t need to be,” says Avi Greengart, research director, mobile devices, for Current Analysis, who spent about an hour actually using a Pre. “It builds on Palm’s heritage of building the best personal information management devices. And they’re extending this beyond a single data store, to all the places [on the Web] where you have information, like LinkedIn or seven different e-mail accounts.”