Early Thoughts on Palm The Pre

One thing that I have learned during my time with my iPhone is that there are a lot of folks who are bent on killing the iPhone. We have seen many iPhone killers come out and fall flat on their faces in the past few months. Palm The Pre is the latest effort by Palm to regain some dignity for the brand and put Palm on the same playing field as Apple. The Pre is a touch screen phone (every one goes touchscreen these days as that’s the ONLY way to beat the iPhone, right?). But it does come with a slide-out keyboard, which is always a plus to me but not necessarily a big deal these days.

The Pre makes charging very easy as you don’t have to use cables to connect it to the charger. But perhaps the best thing about the Pre is the Nova Mobile Operating System. Most devices that have tried to challenge the iPhone have relied on old dinosaur operating systems. But the Web OS gives Palm Pre the best chance to succeed where others have failed. But the new operating system is a big gamble on the Palm’s part. First of all, the OS is new, which means you can expect to be glitches. Secondly, Palm OS doesn’t have what iPhone has, a cult following that is dedicated to write apps for the platform.

The Pre could end up being a great phone, but I doubt it will bring Palm all the way back. It’s the start of a new series of innovations by Palm, and I am personally happy to see Palm trying to fight to regain their spot in the mobile industry. I just don’t believe Pre + Nova is going to catapult Palm to the forefront of the mobile industry once again.