Palm launched its latest offering yesterday at CES 2009 in Las Vegas, the Palm Pre which incorporates the OS (called webOS) that it has been working on for about a year. The 4.8 ounce curvy handset has a touchscreen and sliding keyboard, accelerometer (similar to the iPhone). From what I have seen so far, it looks like sleek device but I feel that Palm has fallen behind its rivals such as Research In Motion, Apple and HTC etc in terms of product offerings and OS development . I for one would not be keen to get a Palm Pre (I wonder when it will come to Singapore? Its will be launched in the US in July by Sprint). With a new OS, applications will be slow to come online and there will be bugs for the first generation of the device.
Another interesting development is the wireless charger for the Palm Pre, dubbed the Touchstone. Just place the Pre on the Touchstone and a magnet will align it correctly for charging, no more messy wires! And the Pre can be used while it is being charged. Oh by the way, the Touchstone is sold separately and requires a Palm Pre back cover for Palm Touchstone charging dock, also sold separately. This charging method is going to get quite expensive though. Nother negative point for the Pre is that it does not have removable card support although the device sports 8GB of built-in flash storage.
It remains to be seen if the Palm Pre will revive Palm. However if Palm’s share price surge of 35% in yesterday’s trading session is any indication, there might be some hope for Palm. Palm’s share price, which traded as high as US$500 per share during the dot com era of 2000, closed at US$4.45. Its Treo and Centro series of smartphones have hardly changed in the past few years and its aborted development of a Treo companion called the Foleo in 2007 did not help matters either. Palm got a shot in the arm in June 2007 through an investment of US$325 million by Elevation Partners, a private equity firm co-founded by Bono of Irish rock band U2, which subsequently injected another US$100 million into Palm in December 2008.
I believe that the success or failure of the Palm Pre will determine the fate of Palm Inc.
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