Sprint has put up a poll in its Sprint Community forum asking, "Which mobile platform do YOU think Sprint should focus on?" This is not some popularity contest for a blog or magazine – this is Sprint. While Sprint will obviously consider many factors in its future product and OS mix, the fact that it is asking its customers (or at least, those who register for the site) what they think suggests that user input might just maybe possibly matter. Your choices: Android, webOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7. You know where we think you should place your vote.

Given the incredible flood of demands for the Pre 2 on Sprint’s Facebook page after Palm asked webOS fans to sound off, a strong showing here would certainly help deliver the message that there are many current and potential Sprint customers for future webOS phones and devices. So get in there, folks, and once more make your voice heard.

Source: Sprint Community; Thanks to skilly_00 in our forum for finding this!

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So, with the disclosure of FCC documents on the upcoming Palm P102UEU, it’s becoming clear that the next Palm device is going to be a spec-bumped Pre. The phone even uses the exact same Touchstone back as the current Pre phones and is confirmed to be a slider device, so it can’t be that different physically than what we already have. The only specs we’ve been able to confirm are a quad-band GSM radio (this one of the European variety, not AT&T), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 1150 mAh battery (again, same as the current phones), and a 1 GHz processor that may or may not be the TI OMAP 3630. Apart from that, there’s not a whole lot we can deduce about the device, except to assume that it may come with increased storage space. We wouldn’t count on a bump in RAM, as the 512MB in the Pre Plus has been proven more than capable.

With the same form factor there’s only so much that can be shoehorned into a Pre-shaped package. The camera may receive a bump in megapixels, but we wouldn’t count on auto-focus or zoom or any fanciness like that. Additionally, we wouldn’t expect to see any significant additions that wouldn’t be plug-and-play with the current hardware (e.g. the software- and pinset-compatible OMAP 3630 processor), so forget about front-facing cameras, compasses, gyroscopes, 4G radios, a larger and/or higher-resolution screen (320×480 is still fairly dense for the size), or anything like that.

So the question stands asking: with only so much upgrade available to be packed into the P102-series (Pre 2?), how much incentive is there for you to make the jump with (hopefully) more impressive hardware down the road? It’s a question that’s going to be especially of interest to Sprint (plus Bell and Telcel) subscribers, who are stuck with the original Palm Pre with no option to upgrade to a more capable Pre Plus without any hardware hackery. So, here’s the question: do you want a spec-bumped P102UEU now, a tricked-out webOS super phone later, or both? 

Do you want a spec-bumped P102UEU now (Q4 2010) or a webOS super phone later (Q1 2011)?online surveys

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HP’s been making a lot of noise about building an ecosystem of webOS device. They’ve talked about tablets and netbooks and printers, oh, and maybe some phones too. But they haven’t really laid any public concrete plans as to what is coming next. We have a sneaking suspicion that the overwhelming response to this question is going to be "OMG new smartphone now!", but we thought we’d ask anyway. So, here goes…

What kind of webOS device do you want next?Market Research

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It was a hypothetical question we floated a few months back for a Round Table session, but recently it seems that our hypotheticals are moving more towards the realm of reality. Our friends over at Engadget beat us to the punch on this one, and put together a fantastic list and summary of the companies thought to be considering a bid for purchasing Palm, but we thought it’s something that we should ask to our more targeted webOS audience: who do you think should buy Palm? Poll after the break, as are those comments in which you so want to sound off.

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UPDATE: In the end, it was no contest. The Pre Plus struck out an early lead and never let up. Even with four days of voting and more than 32,000 votes cast, the Pre held a commanding 65% to 35% lead over the Motorola Droid from the opening bell. Congrats to Palm, and big ups to the webOS community for rallying like you did. It’s over now – and the Pre Plus is the champion!

***

It’s been a grueling challenge that’s seen more than it’s share of upsets (BlackBerry Tour topping the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre Plus trouncing the Nexus One (and BlackBerry Bold (and HTC HD2))), but now it’s all come down to one final match-up. For the championship. Of the world.

Laptop Magazine’s March Smartphone Madness has come to the finals, with the Palm Pre Plus taking on the Motorola Droid (hot off of crushing the iPhone-beating BlackBerry Tour). In many ways, it’s unsurprising to see two Verizon phones going head-to-head for the championship, but we have to admit that the groundswell of support for the Pre Plus has been overwhelming. Now it all comes down to this – after handily trumping the heavily-favored Nexus One during the first round, the Pre Plus is gunning for the next-best Android phone on the market today. It’s guaranteed to be a good fight.

For this to be a good fight, we need everybody to play clean. If it’s not a fair win, it doesn’t mean much, now does it?. Voting is open from now until 9 AM Eastern April 5th.

(And before you ask, no, we’re not going to pin this – but we’ll toss it up in the sidebar, which makes the poll appear on darn near every page on the site.)

Thanks to everybody that has sent (and will send) this in.

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UPDATE: The Palm Pre Plus has felled the Nexus One with 56% of the vote. 4317 votes were cast for the flagship webOS device vs. 3397 for the flagship Android phone. The next victim: the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on T-Mobile. Bring it!

While the Sprint Palm Pixi understandably fell to the BlackBerry Bold in the second match of the first round of Laptop Magazine’s 2010 March Madness smartphone showdown, this week is a new week (week #6, to be specific), and we’ve got another Palm webOS phone in the mix. This week, it’s the Palm Pre Plus (on Verizon, naturally) up against Google’s Nexus One, the powerhouse Android phone hailing from the T-Mobile camp.

Does the Pre Plus have what it takes to handle the Nexus One? We like to think so, but the only way to prove it (and show our frienemies at sister site Android Central who’s the boss (hint: us)) is for the voters (you) to put in a ballot in favor of the Pre Plus.

As of this writing the Pre Plus is in the lead, but just barely, with only a few hundred votes cast so far. Added bonus: if the Pre Plus wins, we get the chance to take on the Bold in the semi-semi-finals and avenge the Pixi’s defeat. And the right to gloat over trouncing the flagship Android phone in an all-important online poll (don’t judge; these days we’ll take whatever victories we can get).

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

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As came up quite often in yesterday’s Round Robin Response, the most important thing for Palm to do right now is sell as many phones as possible. Two reports today seem to indicate that perhaps that effort isn’t going so well.

First, comScore has released some numbers (via daringfireball)indicating that Palm is sliding backwards in the marketshare battle, moving from 8.3% to 6.1% from December to September. Now, Palm’s survival isn’t (just) about marketshare but rather sheer numbers. Also, it’s worth noting that these number probably include everything Palm makes, so while there’s a decline overall it’s likely that’s hiding an uptick in webOS share (one hopes).

Meanwhile, Barron’s reports (via everythingpre)that Piper Jaffray Analyst T. Michael Walkley says webOS sales on Verizon has him "slightly disappointed," but he continues that heavy marketing could help. Hopefully there are enough moms out there to help Palm with these numbers.

Here at PreCentral, informally it does still seem like the vast majority of webOS users are on Sprint – but hey, maybe we’re wrong. How about you set us straight with this here poll:

What carrier is your webOS device on?(polls)

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This came up during our most recent PalmCast Live, and we thought it’d be worth asking all of you: what is the most you’d be willing to pay for a webOS app? Obviously, the price you’ll be willing to pay will be dependent upon the application (Documents to Go is worth more to customers than Bejeweled, and rightfully so), but think of the most complicated in-depth application you can see yourself buying, and then think how many bucks you’d be willing to fork over for that app. Do you see the App Catalog becoming something like the 99¢ wasteland that is the iPhone App Store, or will we be paying $5 or $10 a pop like we did back in the days of Palm OS? Or will we land somewhere in the middle, as with the BlackBerry App World?

Hopefully soon we’ll be able to get a definitive answer on how much developers plan on charging. September 24th, perhaps?

What’s the most you’d pay for a webOS app?(survey software)

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