Are you buying a Palm Pre? Yes or No — and tell us why
Posted on 20 May 2009, at 6:09 am, by Wayne Schulz
Today’s GearChat is simple. We all know more than we want about the Palm Pre shipping on June 6. We know it’s going to be $299 less a $100 mail in rebate. Engadget is reporting the no-contract price is $549. Watching and reading about the release is exciting. But ultimately what really matters is how many buy a Palm Pre.
Will you be buying the Palm Pre (either on launch day or before the end of this year)? If so, why are you buying? What feature(s) do you hope to use that you aren’t able to get on today’s crop of Smartphones ? And if you’re not planning on buying – why? Are you totally satisfied with what you use?
Related posts:
- Buying a Palm Pre – forget about using your existing micro-USB chargers
- Verizon Palm Centro launches 6/13 – users buying them in store already
- Palm Pre total cost of ownership is $1,200 less than iPhone
- Palm Pre available for upgrade and new orders on the Sprint site
- Watch out Palm Centro – the $ 99 smartphone war is heating up at Verizon
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May 20th, 2009 at 6:11 am
I’m not feeling the “buzz” like I was a few months ago. Maybe that will change as June 6 approaches. Using an iPhone the only thing I’d like better is a tighter integration to Gmail. The problem with switching is that if I do so then I lose all those iPhone Apps that I love.
Will be interesting to watch reaction to this. Sprint and Palm definitely seem to be in a do or die state. Also I’m wondering if we’re going to see a Palm Pre type device without a cell phone (similar to iPod Touch).
May 20th, 2009 at 7:31 am
Not sure on the touch (I just don’t think anybody can compete with Apple due to itunes in regards to music)
There is rumors of an ‘EOS’ which is supposed to be a different form factor (smaller). Since the Pre has a real and virtual keyboard option, It maybe their modern incarnation of the Centro. Something the non-text happy mavin would want.
I’m guessing once the OS is baked, the R&D for different form factors is relatively low.
I’m buying one because, for a variety of reasons, I’m sticking with Sprint. I also like the fact that overall Sprint is always alot less expensive than AT&T and Verizon and has much better 3g coverage than AT&T.
I’m hoping for a caching newsreader app at some point like Byline:
http://www.phantomfish.com/byline.html
It downloads your RSS feeds from Google Reader, and more importantly spider’s down to the originally linked HTML and caches it.
For the ipod touch that is key as wifi in the wild is pretty rare. As usual with Ipod/touch OS, it can’t do the caching unless it is the forefront application.
If they could do this on the pre, but fetch the updates and cached pages in the background, then when you read the newsfeeds and web pages, they should fly like broadband since they are coming out of memory.
I don’t see an iphone user hooked into AT&T switching but I bet you see alot of Blackberry users with iPhone envy switch as they aren’t willing to give up the real keyboard (I have a Palm 700p and an iPod touch and there is no competition as to which one I want when I have to type more than a yes/no response to something.
The big question is, how long until Verizon gets the Pre. That’s when the sales trajectory will really take off.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:36 am
I really feel that Palm dropped the ball by limiting themselves to a CDMA carrier.
Sure, Sprint has a long-running relationship with them and I understand that, but I think they shot themselves in the foot by not going with a GSM carrier *worldwide* right off the bat.
It seems to me that for a struggling company, limiting the number of people who can use your product right off the bat is foolish.
OK – argue that Apple did that with the iPhone by making it US AT&T only, but did they really? How long did it take for people to get around that? Unfortunately their is no easy fix to get around CDMA.
Anyway. I liked what I saw at the Pre launch, and I hope it does well for them, but at this moment I am not feeling it. Maybe once I try it, who knows.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Waiting for the GSM version too…
My deal breaker could be a goofy native PIM suite (e.g. no categories), and a difficult migration path from older Palm OS devices.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:46 am
No way! Sprint is just not good where I live and AT&T is. I’m into Blackberry right now, and it’s awfully hard to leave that.
May 20th, 2009 at 8:58 am
The lack of a GSM version is a dealbreaker for me too. I travel overseas a lot, and I want one smartphone for everywhere I go.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Probably not buying it. First, I’m in a Verizon contract until December. Second, I’m strongly considering moving to AT&T for an iPhone then because my VZW signal stinks at home, has not improved, it seems it will not anytime soon, and I learned that AT&T – which used to have no signal at my house – suddenly has a fairly strong 3G signal here.
Sprint will be no better than VZW, so, simply for the ability to actually use the thing, I really doubt that I would go to a Pre.
And $299 with a rebate you need to wait for? Who the heck likes that kind of a deal, when the major smartphone players are all available at $199 out of pocket or less? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
May 20th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
As I just switched to a GSM carrier, no way. Even though T-Mobile did not work in the sticks and Sprint did, I would not switch. The Palm Pre is starting to become like the ever elusive US version of Cupcake (here’s a hint T-Mobile….I appreciate it that you are trying to make it bug free, but to promise it for an entire month, well….there ya go. Also, there’s no such thing as bug free software. Just release it dang it!
May 20th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I’m getting it day one (or hopefully sooner as a Sprint Premier customer.) I think one reason Palm is beginning the launching on Sprint alone is supply; they are already predicting shortages. Why have it more widely available if they can’t meet demand? They are spacing out the launches on other carriers and other regions to spread out the demand as they ramp up supply.