In This Hand, The Palm Pre
Here’s another touch-screen alternative to Apple’s iPhone: the Palm Pre. Introduced at CES 2009 in Las Vegas. Engadget’s got it, as they always do at CES.
Many are hoping this is Palm’s comeback product in the market they once dominated, according to the Wall Street Journal:
The Palm Pre is built upon a new operating system, which is called the Palm webOS, that the company says will make it easier for developers to create applications for Palm devices.
“We think it is the first device that will automatically navigate the Web,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s executive chairman, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Thursday.
The device is Palm’s latest attempt to make headway in the smart-phone market. Palm, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., was once a trendsetter in hand-held computers, and helped pioneer the smart-phone category earlier this decade with the Treo device, but it has since been squeezed by competition from Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry and Apple Inc.’s iPhone. In mid-2007, private equity group Elevation Partners took a 25% stake in Palm and brought on board Mr. Rubinstein, formerly a top Apple executive, to try to bring back innovation at the company.
Amazing how quickly products rise and fall. In spite of Pogue’s panning of the Blackberry Storm, fans remain in favor. Days for its introduction, Verizon was predicting strong sales, although Engadget was reporting software failure.
You know, the more I think about it, the more I need to get an iPhone.
