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Matthew Miller
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Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre

By | January 14, 2009, 10:00am PST

Summary: After Palm announced the Pre at CES you just knew the comparisons with existing devices was going to come out. Gizmodo posted a comparison between the Pre, iPhone, and G1 which is a pretty fair comparison given that these all run fairly new operating systems, use touch capacitive displays, and are the hottest devices in the mobile space at the moment. Gizmodo’s bottom line is that the Pre gets the advantage in most all categories with the G1 only getting a partial kudos for copy and paste.

Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the PreAfter Palm announced the Pre at CES you just knew the comparisons with existing devices was going to come out. Gizmodo posted a comparison between the Pre, iPhone, and G1 which is a pretty fair comparison given that these all run fairly new operating systems, use touch capacitive displays, and are the hottest devices in the mobile space at the moment. Gizmodo’s bottom line is that the Pre gets the advantage in most all categories with the G1 only getting a partial kudos for copy and paste. Keep in mind that the Pre hasn’t been released yet or even used by anyone, but Palm employees so some of the details on the Pre may not be fully flushed out.

Mobility Site then took that comparison structure and added in Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices. It looks like S60 was left out by all, primarily due to their lack of presence in the US market. Again, the Pre won this head-to-head, but Mobility Site put a very heavy Windows Mobile spin on it and gave WM a tie with the Palm Pre. It doesn’t seem like the writer has used the G1 because 0.333 points were all that was given to the device/OS. Category number 7 was development platform and I would think the G1 should have gotten points for this. Then Category 10 was about the application store/development community and again the Android scored 0 points with the iPhone getting 1. Both the Pre and Android/G1 are Linux-based operating systems that developers seem to want to embrace. Hello, the iPhone and G1 are the only two devices with real onboard app stores and have developers quite excited. The G1 also has a physical keyboard and web browser. The rating system was very strange and it seemed to be cumulative, but from category 6 to 7 the iPhone went down a point so I think it is flawed. Overall, it was quite a lame comparison IMHO.

In another interesting type of comparison, The iPhone Blog posted an article on what the Pre stole from the iPhone and what the iPhone should steal from the Pre. The article takes a good look at two devices that are quite similar and offers some good analysis. The Pre is still months away from release so there may be a few differences at launch and we haven’t actually gotten any hands-on time with the device yet. There is definitely some room for Apple to improve on the iPhone and I am hoping we see some good stuff when the WWDC takes place in June.

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Palm Inc., Palm Pre, G1, Advertising & Promotion, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Wireless And Mobility, Handhelds, Marketing, Software, Hardware, Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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RE: Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre
dalaron1 17th May 2009
I think the Palm has some promising feature. Multi tasking will be a huge difference. Some of my biggest concerns will be backward compatibility and how well palm integrates its online apps store. How well the actual device functions. I"ve had several different model palm over the years and this has always been and issue. The charging system really is a nice feature. But how well will the over air syc process work. If it works like it's designed then I think the iphone will have good competition.
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0 Votes
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Job did say they were going to protect their patents tooth and nail...
doctorSpoc 14th Jan 2009
i'm a bit worried for Palm in that patent department..
if Apple gets their patents approved and ruled against
Palm.. the Palm Pre usability basically goes up in
smoke. this is like some of the kludgy redesigns Macromedia had to do in some of their products because
of Adobe patents... and we know how that ended up...
Macromedia is now part of Adobe...
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Multi-touch definitely needs to get sorted out
linuser 14th Jan 2009
It seems almost obvious now, to use your fingers to manipulate objects (enlarge,shrink,rotate,etc.) on a touchscreen. However, when I first saw Apple demonstrate it, it sure seemed new.

Apple was not the first to utilize a touch screen, so it will be interesting to see if there was any prior art, or if it is something obvious that should not be patentable.

Microsoft seems to be discussing multi-touch a lot these days, so I'm curious if/how they are affected by Apple's patents.

Things should get really interesting, now that touch screens are all the rage.
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RE: Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre
carydc1 14th Jan 2009
I understand protecting your Intelect Property. But this is BEYOND getting out of hand.

The Patent Office needs to have their heads examined.

Until Sanity has been reached in the area of Patent Granting and Enforcement when it comes to the prevention and stifling of innovation, then and only then will the world finally have arrived.

Otherwise the Attorneys will continue to rule the world and not Innovation.
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The Pre is obviously the better phone.
dcoaster 14th Jan 2009
Not sure about the better overall system, but the phone itself is a jewel that gave Palm the morale boost it needed.
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RE: Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre
sysop-dr 15th Jan 2009
Not sure why peole keep saying there is no app store for the Windows Mobile devices as the one I have has a builtin app that takes me to a place where I can download and buy applications. It's not called "app store" but "Software Store." (Maybe that makes a difference to some people?)
I still like the Windows Mobile devices better them all of the smart phones out there. The IPhone is a IPod first and a phone second. The Palm Pre is a PDA first and a phone second (Wow it has a browser.)
BlackBerries are email devices first and phones/pdas second/third.
Most other "Smart Phones" are phones first and pdas second, where the Windows Mobile (especially the Professional bunch) are Computers first and phones second.
I can even write my own software, not only for the Windows Mobile device, but with/on my Windows Mobile device. None of the rest even hint at trying to do that...
So hands down, for me (not saying for anyone else, because hey maybe all you want to do is listen to music, watch videos and take incoming calls) the Windows Mobile Professional platform is the best tool for me. (I even compiled Mozilla to work on it, and I have my blood glucose monitor software and my email, facebook, gps interface with maps, bible, music and video with media player, Word, Excel, software for star watching, camera, wifi, broadband on cell, keyboard as well as an IR full sized folding keyboard for those times when thumbs are not quite enough, periodic table of the elements, games (even guitar hero.)
It has a touch screen. Most people use it with a pointer, but you can use your fingers if you want to.
I have not found anything that the others can do that the windows mobile can't. I even have it running the latest X3D virtual reality simulations from NASA. Try that on your IPhone or Pre.
If you limit yourself to the software delivered with the device and do a comparison that way you are not comparing the devices at all, just the stuff that some company decided that the lowest common denominator user would like.
But fif you truely want to compare the devices try using them for what they can do with their full potential. Add Firefox (or opera) to your device. Get some good applications for it. Write the applications you can't find. And then compare the devices. Don't just try using Internet Explorer Mobile and compare that to Firefox on the pre. Put firefox on the WM device and compare the two devices with the same software installed. Otherwise you are comparing apples and oranges. (Or apples and Penguins)
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If the Pre is backwards compatible it'll get instant cred
geedavey@... 15th Jan 2009
...with lots of legacy fans and specialty users such as doctors, engineers, etc. And don't underestimate the value of removable storage, removable battery, and a Linux platform. So I sincerely hope they release an OS5 emulator, and I'll be lining up to buy it. Heck, I'll get four.
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Another iPhone Killer *yawn*
FinanceBuzz 15th Jan 2009
I'll believe it when it happens. As I have said before, the iPhone's superiority lies not in checks in a list of feature boxes but in the overall experience. Apple products are the manifestation of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
0 Votes
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RE: Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre
BoogieStik 23rd Jan 2009
A few things you know for sure: Apple's going to just sit on its
thumbs, has ceased all development for the iPhone, and will let
Palm walk right in and steal mind share.

Right.
0 Votes
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RE: Early Palm Pre and iPhone comparisons give advantage to the Pre
dalaron1 17th May 2009
I think the Palm has some promising feature. Multi tasking will be a huge difference. Some of my biggest concerns will be backward compatibility and how well palm integrates its online apps store. How well the actual device functions. I"ve had several different model palm over the years and this has always been and issue. The charging system really is a nice feature. But how well will the over air syc process work. If it works like it's designed then I think the iphone will have good competition.

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