Palm Pre Touch Phone » Palm Pre News

Is Palm Pre 2 Coming Soon?

Kevin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:38:41 +0000

I just read this interesting piece of news from Engadget hinting that Palm Pre 2 is coming soon to Europe? Wait, why Europe, what about us in North America? Not fair, not fair. Anyway, what we are speculating now on a Pre 2 is a more powerful processor. Although we might be able to see a bigger screen, the overall form factor will be roughly the same. The original design was well-received, why make any dramatic changes? But given the fierce competition from Android and iOS phones, a bigger and higher resolution screen is must to fend off other smartphones. Games are a big part of why people use their phones often these days. So, a bigger screen will definitely make your gaming experience better.

Palm Pre already does a great job managing all your social networking life on a single device. What can the upcoming Pre 2 make you social networking better? Sure you have a phone contact list, Facebook app, and Twitter app, Palm Pre is by far the best phone integrating all these info for you.

Pre 2 is coming soon and it won’t be cheap. But we will make sure to get you a great deal and save more money here.

WebOS Tablet Available in Q1 2011

Kevin — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:10:21 +0000

We were expecting to see a HP WebOS Tablet in late 2010. Now HP just officially stated that the new tablet will be available in Q1 2011. I guess we can hold on to the money for now. No price or other details were revealed. January 2011 is one year after Apple officially announced the new iPad. Given the track record how frequent Apple updates their iPhone and iPod lines, we are expecting an iPad 2 to be introduced around the same time. That’s an interesting timing! For Palm and HP to steal some customers away from Apple, they better create something amazing and more magical than the iPad or iPad 2!

Which US Carrier has Palm WebOS Phone?

Kevin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:54:40 +0000

You probably know that Sprint has always been the first one to release Palm smartphones. But who else carry the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus? Now every major carrier in the United States has Palm Pre or Pixi except T-Mobile. In fact, TMobile never carry Palm products before and has no plans to do so in the near future. The Pre arrived on the market about a year ago and since then the WebOS family has grown to include Pixi, Pre Plus, and Pixi Plus. Not only the number of devices are growing, the numbers of carriers to increasing too. Sprint was the only carrier in 2009 and now that Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus are available through AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Consumers have more choices and don’t need to be locked into a single carrier. This is just the beginning. As competition heats up from Android and iPhone, expect more innovation from Palm and HP on both hardware and software!

Why Google Shouldn’t Buy Palm

Kevin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:33:44 +0000

There has been a number or reports or rumors or speculations that Google will eventually scoop up Palm. My take - no way. Why should Google buy Palm or WebOS when they already have the Android that is moving up in total market share especially at the expense of Palm? No offense Palm fans, the WebOS are a great platform in many ways, but just not good enough these days. Palm is a small company that’s still losing money. Is the Google phone making money? Well, I haven’t found any specific number how much revenue the Android phone makes up for Google. Even if the Android phones don’t make money at this point, Google has piles of cash to continue to improve its Mobile business. And Google shouldn’t buy something that was just hype over 1 year ago and have no promise for the future. So, who should buy Palm? BlackBerry, Microsoft, or Apple?

Verizon Still Loves Pre

Kevin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:27:29 +0000

After all it was just a bad call by thestreet.com analyst. Glad to hear from a number of sources that the Pre is still coming to Verizon Wirelesss. Maybe I was just too emotional after reading the reported rumor. Now everything seems to be clear up there is much hope that both Palm Pre and Pixi will make its way to the most reliable wireless network in North America.

What was I thinking before? Of course Verizon still loves Pre! Based on the past and current partnership Palm has with carriers, T-Mobile is the only one that doesn’t carry any Treo an Centro smart phones. That wasn’t a big deal at all since Tmobile has much smaller subscription base than other big carriers. And since Verizon doesn’t have any iPhone like device in the near future (at least until AT&T ends the exclusive deal with Apple), the Pre can really take advantage and market to the iphoneless Verizon customers. Many of my friends who were anxiously looking for a touch screen phone already upgraded to the BB Storm last year. And they will have choices early next year thanks to the Pre

Verizon Wireless doesn’t want the Pre

Kevin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:51:09 +0000

While we were hoping that the Pre will land on Verizon Wireless early next year thestreet.com has reported that Verizon would not get the Palm Pre at all. If it’s true, it’s going to be a major setback for Palm. What’s the reason for Verizon not to carry the Pre? Because Palm can’t ship over 1 million mark? Come on. How many of other brands you are carrying now do over 1 million? The Pre is the only phone in the market today that can actually go head to head with the iPhone.

I am hoping Scott Moritz is wrong on this one. Otherwise, the iPhoneless Verizon is making a big mistake. Sure they can try to sell more Blackberry Storm. But there are just not enough Blackberry fans out there to support the growth of Blackberry. In other words, they need some cool devices that prevent people switching to AT&T for the iPhone. Seriously, the only reason that I am not with Verizon yet is because they don’t have anything close the iPhone. Once again I am disappointed and have to stay away from Verizon longer until they have something like the Pre to offer. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Palm accepting paid-app submissions for App Catalog

Chris Davies — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:41:10 +0000

Palm have announced that, starting today, developers looking to charge for their webOS applications will be able to submit them for approval and inclusion into the App Catalog. Until now, titles available to download to the Palm Pre have been free of charge; Palm are now throwing open the doors to apps that actually cost something, with the first developers selected being included in the September e-commerce beta program.

That program will kick off midway through the month, and the selected titles – which will include both free and paid apps – will be among the next wave of software released into the Catalog. Revenues will be split 70/30 (developer/Palm) after relevant sales taxes, with only one-time charges allowed, while customers will be able to use Visa and MasterCard credit cards to pay for their apps. Conspicuous by its absence is any sort of cut for the carriers.

The full developer program is expected to launch in the US this fall. More details regarding paid-apps policies at http://pdnblog.palm.com/

Press Release:

Palm to Open E-commerce Beta Program for Palm App Catalog

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 18, 2009 — Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) announced that starting today developers who wish to charge for their Palm webOS™ applications can begin submitting them for consideration in the Palm® App Catalog e-commerce beta program, which will begin in mid-September. Developers selected to participate in the beta program will have the opportunity to have their applications, both free and paid, featured in the Palm App Catalog ahead of the next wave, and to be among the first to be paid for purchases of their Palm webOS applications.

As part of the App Catalog e-commerce beta program for the Palm Pre™ phone and future Palm webOS devices, developers will receive a 70/30 split (developer/Palm) of gross revenues generated through application sales (less applicable sales taxes). Customers will be able to easily purchase applications using Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Further details about the program and distribution model will be provided in the coming weeks. Palm expects to launch the full developer program in the United States this fall.

“We’re rolling out the submission process and e-commerce capabilities of the Palm App Catalog with careful consideration for both the developer and customer,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We want every part of the Palm webOS experience to be the best, and a strong e-commerce model is key to a thriving developer community, great apps and an excellent customer experience.”

More information about how developers can submit an application for the beta
e-commerce program, as well as criteria for application acceptance, is available on the Palm Developer Network blog at http://pdnblog.palm.com/.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc. is a leading mobile products company, creating instinctive yet powerful mobile products that enable people to better manage their lives on the go. The company’s products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm Pre™, Palm® Treo™ and Palm Centro™ phones, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm online stores (http://www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com.

Pre returns less than 3% suggests latest research

Chris Davies — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:05:44 +0000

The Palm Pre return rate wrangling continues unabated, with RBC analyst Mike Abramsky the latest to step into the fray. After initial return estimates of around 40-percent returns sent Palm’s stock price into a tumble, followed by reassurance that, in fact, such figures were possibly based on bad data, Abramsky’s team now claim that returns are more likely between 2 and 3-percent.

That’s significantly lower than the early estimates, and reassuring news for Palm shareholders. Abramsky and his team monitored around 24 Sprint stores to gather their data, concluding in a report this week that Palm Pre sales have “sustained momentum”.

They also suggest that Sprint has sold around 350,000 Pre devices in the seven weeks since it launched. All well and good, until you remember that back on June 30th Equity Research analyst Edward Snyder tipped Pre sales figures to that point at 300,000. Either Sprint has only sold 50,000 Pre smartphones in July, or someone’s guesses were way off base. Palm’s stock value had risen 400-percent for the year by the end of June, but dipped 15-percent this month on the basis of the poor returns rate estimates.

Palm webOS 1.1.0 released, restores iTunes sync

Chris Davies — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:45:37 +0000

Palm have released webOS 1.1.0, if Apple thought their blocking of iTunes sync for the Pre would be the end of things, they should think again. Among the changes in 1.1.0 – which include better Exchange support and improved integration between Facebook and Contacts – Palm have resolved “an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (8.2.1)”. Generally the feature list concurs with what we saw leaked earlier in the week.

That issue, of course, was that Apple purposefully blocked the Pre in their most recent iTunes update, repeating their earlier warning that “in future” some devices not officially supported by themselves may not work with the software. Palm obviously took that as an invitation to tweak their smartphone to restore compatibility.

Elsewhere in webOS 1.1.0 there’s faster performance overall, a switch to Wikipedia mobile versus the full site when searching in Card view or from the Launcher, a new gesture to move forward through webpages (”make a short swipe left to right in the gesture area”) and emoticons are properly displayed. There’s also better management over unread email counts for push-email. Palm have the full list of changes here.

Palm release webOS Mojo SDK

Chris Davies — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:25:57 +0000

Palm have thrown open the doors to their webOS SDK, making the Palm Mojo beta available to anybody with a valid email address. According to the company’s official blog, the submissions process for the App Catalog will open to all developers this fall.

Palm have also confirmed that they have an unknown number of new applications in the pipeline for release into the App Catalog, presumably from the closed “early access program” that has been running from early April. It’s unclear when these will actually be released for Pre owners to download, but given Apple have just announced that they have passed the 1.5bn app downloads mark, it makes sense that Palm will try to get more content out as soon as they can.

As well as the Mojo SDK itself, Palm have also made available all of the developers guide and documentation, plus their UI guidelines and a “hello world” sample app. More information at their new developers’ portal.