Palm Unveils 'Pre,' Long Awaited New OS - $200, first half 2009 launch, Sprint is the launch partner

[furrbear]

Reviews so far look good:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Palm-Unveils-Pre-Long-Awaited-New-OS-100120

Palm yesterday unveiled their new "Pre" phone at CES, the device sporting integrated Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480 x 320 display, slide out QWERTY keyboard and more, as usual explored in great detail by the gadget blogs Engadget and Gizmodo. Palm also finally unveiled their long-awaited new mobile operating system they say is "cloud-centric, not desktop-centric." Overall, opinions of the device so far seem very positive, and investors certainly liked the news. Rumors so far peg the Palm Pre's price tag at more than $200, with a release date sometime in the first half of this year. Most interesting to us is that Palm chose Sprint as their launch partner, despite the carrier's recent customer service problems. Thoughts?
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Sprint makes a bit of sense to me. The GSM crowd is gaga with Android and iPhones. The other CDMA carrier, VZW, seems hardcore into Blackberries, Windows-Mobile, and BREW phones with which to lock users into their 'service offerings'. On top of that, it'll take at least six months for VZW "Engineers" to QA the Pre on their network.

Comments

[winstonthriller.livejournal.com]

On top of that, it'll take at least six months for VZW "Engineers" to QA the Pre on their network.

You mean cut off its balls, dress it in frilly pink and put "This face seats six." on the phone.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Most ANY Motorola? (to think of just one line of phone)

Like to explain the lack of high-end Nokia phones?

Yep. All of the above fit that.

I think VZW has always had an antipathy for PalmOS phones because it's too difficult to castrate them and lock them to Verizon services.

[winstonthriller.livejournal.com]

We have Sprint here in Vermont, but it is mostly a joke.

AT&T starts midmonth. Let's see what deals Verizon will make to keep us.

[winbear.livejournal.com]

I'm going to wait until Verizon officially carries or decides not to carry it. I'm not switching to Sprint. My Treo 700p does most of what I need currently.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

700p here also. If Palm lays an egg with the new phones, I'll probably switch to GSM and either a Nokia E61/62/71 or an Android or Apple-based Jeebus-Phone.

[winbear.livejournal.com]

Harry has asked 3 times in the last few months why I haven't been asking for an iPhone. I've barely used any iPod I've had (I'm on his hand-me-down Nano at the moment). The Palm does mp3 playback and I've even watched TV shows on the SD card.

Yep.

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

PowerTunes Pro + multiple 8GB SD cards. Using Winamp Pro, I can recode MP3s to smaller format for the phone.

[iberianbear.livejournal.com]

I don't think Sprint was much of a choice from Palm's side here in the US. AT&T and Verizon probably didn't put much effort into gaining exclusivity for this new Palm device.
I sure hope this comes to the GSM carriers sooner than later!

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

The blurb on NPR sounded intriguing.

The Sprint requirement is a killer for me though. Their service sucks around here (if not everywhere).

[furrbear.livejournal.com]

Sprint also kills it in DFW.