You’ve hopefully heard of the Palm Pre by now.  It’s been out for just a couple of weeks, but it is making a pretty big splash in the smartphone world.  In fact, the anticipation of its arrival was comparable to that of the iPhone in many ways.  But is it living up to the hype in the face of new Apple offerings?  Click to read more…

Engadget has an extremely thorough review of the Palm Pre with all of it’s pros and cons.  Since I don’t have the phone, I can’t give you my take in comparison, but I can give you my impressions, hopes, and expectations for what the Pre will do over the next few months.

If you know me, then you know that I have a very passionate love/hate relationship with Apple.  I love how they innovate and drive competition, but I hate the mass appeal and the strict control they place over their products by default.  It’s a complicated situation.  Despite the amazing things they have done with the iPhone, I have always been hoping for something better to come into the mix from some competitor.  A real competitor.  One where the term “iPhone killer” has some genuine legitimacy.  Could Palm have created that phone?

Personally, I don’t think they have a killer on their hands.  I think it will take a lot more for Apple fans to abandon their current devices and migrate to another product, and this phone doesn’t seem like it will do it.  However, I DO think that this phone will give people who are not already iPhone owners and fanboys a valid alternative as a great smartphone for the masses.

Palm has learned from Apple’s successes and failures.  They acknowledge that sleek, simple, and sexy are key to a well received product.  It’s not just the phone itself though; it’s the software.  Palm has created a completely new operating system called WebOS that is revolutionary in its capabilities.  WebOS will be a legitimate competitor to Apple’s mobile operating system in time.

Part of the reason why I say that is because WebOS is not going to be restricted to just one phone maker like the iPhone is.  WebOS is like Google’s Android which is now being offered on multiple carriers around the world and will soon be available to other phones besides the T-Mobile G1 here in the US.  The flexibility to support multiple phone styles while still providing the same awesome software experience for users is a big one up over Apple.

To learn what the perks of WebOS are, read the Engadget review linked above.  You’ll see that there is a lot that is great, a lot that is good with much potential for growth, and only a little that isn’t really meeting expectations.  Because of WebOS’s over-the-air (OTA) update capability, fixes, security patches, upgrades, etc. can be pushed out to every device quickly and easily.  This is another great advantage over the iPhone, which requires upgrades to new versions (often at a cost) very aperiodically.

In addition, developing applications for WebOS is going to be really easy for developers because all they need to know is basic web programming: HTML, CSS, Javascript.  That’s it!  It’s like the whole operating system is a big sexy browser, capable of running multiple web applications in parallel.  It’s genious.

Another great thing about the Pre, is that it is being offered by a great service provider: Sprint.  Sprint’s network is not the largest in the country, but it is certainly one of the fastest and most affordable.  They will attract a lot of new customers from this phone and it will hopefully encourage them to grow their coverage so they can truly compete with the likes of Verizon (which has fewer good phones) and AT&T (which is a crappy network and provider).

I believe in the potential of the Pre to make people question if iPhone is the end-all of pseudo-smartphones.  It will open peoples’ eyes to the possibilities.  Great performance, easy to use, sexy, affordable, a physical keyboard, greater flexibility…it exists.  Here is to a great future for WebOS, Android, and all other Apple competitors.  May they learn from each other and build toward better phones for us all.

Happy Computing!