Last week at the CES show in Las Vegas, Palm introduced a brand new smartphone that it plans to start selling at some point in the first half of 2009, the Palm Pre.
Pre (rhymes with tree) is an odd name. As Dan Frakes of Macworld wrote: "It's like calling your product 'beta'." But then again, I thought "Wii" was a strange name when Nintendo announced its game system, and now that sounds normal. Plus, the stress symbol over the "e" reminds me of the Palm Treo and brings back memories of Palm's former glory. (When the Treo 650 was new, I really loved mine.)
Whatever the name, it looks like Palm has come up with some great ideas for a smartphone. The thing that sets the iPhone apart from other smartphones is its amazing hardware and software design, the result of Apple rethinking what a smartphone should be. It appears that Palm did the same thing. Palm has a history of doing this -- the original PalmPilot and the Treo were breakthrough devices -- but it is somewhat of an ancient history. It has been a long time since we saw anything truly innovative from Palm.
Here are a few of the design innovations in the Pre that I find impressive:
- The touchscreen extends below the screen itself, down to the black area at the bottom where the button is located, and this is a place to use gestures. You can swipe left and right down there without covering the information on the screen. If you swipe up on the screen, the screen scrolls (just like the iPhone), but if you instead start your swipe in the gesture area, you get an application launcher. Do the same thing but hold at the end and you get a nice wave animation on which you can select from your favorite apps.
- Palm treats each window of each application as a card. Multiple cards can all be running at the same time, and with simple gestures you can switch between then or reorder them. Press the single button at the bottom of the screen to shrink the app you are using to a card. It is nice to see multitasking -- the iPhone allows some Apple apps (like the iPod and Mail) to run at the same time as another application, but for the most part does not allow multitasking. But more impressive than multitasking itself is the innovative card metaphor which appears to make a lot of sense for a smartphone.
The device is small with a full screen on its face, but there is also a slide out keyboard for those who want a keyboard to type e-mails.
- You can use the keyboard to search for text across all of your applications -- and if the Pre cannot find it there, it offers to search Google, Google Maps or Wikipedia.
- Palm will also sell a unique charger called the Touchstone. Simply place a Pre on it (magnets keep it attached) and the Touchstone charges the device without having to plug in any cables. The surface of the Touchstone is at an angle and you can place the Pre in a vertical or horizontal position, which might be nice for watching a movie.
We'll have to wait for the device to be released to see all that it offers that is different from the iPhone and to find out how well it works in the real world. For example, it appears that while the Pre allows third-party apps, they are not true apps but instead are just widget-like web pages that can be stored on the Pre. It reminds me of the first year that the original iPhone was out when there were no true third party apps and Apple instead encouraged people to write web pages specially formatted for the iPhone. Some of those web apps were useful and I still use several today, but few can compare to a real native iPhone app. Daniel Dilger has noted similar concerns on his blog, but folks from Palm claim this is different: "What we’re doing is very different from what Apple did prior to the SDK being available. Wish I could say more now, but I can’t. Stay tuned." [FN: See below] And like Dilger, I also wonder if the Pre will feel too chunky -- it is smaller but twice as thick as the iPhone, although the weight is about the same. For now, most of us are just guessing about many of the pros and cons of the Pre. As Leo Laporte pointed out on this week's edition of TWiT, "we have got to wait until it comes out. The [Blackberry] Storm, on the face of it, looked like a great phone ... and we have been disappointed by 'iPhone killers' before. But I have to say that I'm very impressed."
Of course, it is obvious that Palm borrowed a ton of ideas from the iPhone. A lot of us lawyers are wondering -- will Apple assert that Palm infringed on Apple patents on ideas such as multi-touch pinch to zoom in and out? When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, he made a point of emphasizing that the iPhone "changes everything" and that the iPhone's multi-touch gestures are Apple's intellectual property. He said:
We have invented a new technology called multi-touch which is phenomenal. It works like magic. You don't need a stylus. It's far more accurate than any touch display that's ever been shipped. It ignores unintended touches. It's super smart. You can do multi-finger gestures on it. And boy have we patented it.
It is not completely accurate to say that Apple invented multi-touch. The idea has been around for a long time, although Apple was the first company to refine it and popularize it for a phone (much like Apple popularized the use of a mouse with a computer back in 1984, but did not invent the mouse). Nevertheless, many of Apple's multi-touch gestures are innovative and I believe that the Pre is the first phone to copy the pinch to zoom in and out gesture that is so wonderful on the iPhone. Apple has taken steps to patent the iPhone's multi-touch ideas, and it will be interesting to see whether Apple mounts a legal challenge against Palm. Remember that after Apple introduced visual voicemail on the iPhone, it was sued by a company who claimed to own a patent on the idea, and Apple ultimately decided to settle the case and license the technology. [UPDATE on 1/27/09: It appears that Apple was awarded the patent, and Apple COO Tim Cook recently confirmed that Apple will protect this patent.]
But whether or not Palm unfairly copied from Apple, Palm also came up with a lot of their own ideas, including the ones that I mentioned above. I'm sure Apple will be taking a close look at what Palm has done, and perhaps we will see some of these ideas implemented in the future on the iPhone. The iPhone blog has an interesting post on what Palm took from Apple and what Apple should take from Palm. [UPDATE on 1/15/09: Engadget also has a great article "What Apple could learn from Palm's webOS."]
As a former long-time user of Palm products, I'm glad to see that the company is making a new and exciting device again. (I wonder how much of the credit goes to the numerous former Apple employees now working at Palm, including the new Chairman of the Board, Jon Rubenstein.) And as an iPhone user, I'm thrilled to see that the competition is innovating. Healthy competition should result in better smartphones for all of us.
If you are interested in learning more about the Palm Pre, here are some web pages that are worth checking out:
- Palm has posted the video from the introduction at CES, and this is perhaps the best way to see what the Palm Pre is all about. The video runs about an hour.
- Engadget has a lot of Palm Pre posts, including this good in-depth look with pictures and first impressions.
- PC World has a good first look.
- CrunchGear has an 11 minute video of the device.
- ArsTechnica has a nice overview and comparison to the iPhone.
- TreoCentral has a good video showing the device and asking questions of Palm and a post with first impressions.
- The New York Times has an interesting article about what this device means for Palm.
Palm has not yet announced a price for the Palm Pre. It will (at least at first) be exclusive to Sprint.
FOOTNOTE (added 1/27/09): In my original post I quoted "folks from Palm" and provided a link to a post on Palm employee Andrew Shebanow's website Shebanation. (The language I quoted actually appeared in the Comments, something that Andrew said in response to another Comment.) But apparently Palm asked Andrew to remove his post (and the comments), and I wasn't the only one to notice it. So you'll just have to take my word for it that this is what Andrew said. Don't worry, I'm a lawyer; you can trust me.
