When did smartphones become superphones?  To be precise, the term superphone was unofficially coined only this year with the launch of Google’s Nexus One back in January of 2010.  While one can argue whether or not a term like superphone vs. smartphone is warranted, what isn’t up for debate is that 2010 saw the release of a succession of groundbreaking devices sporting amazing hardware.  While the term began with the Nexus One it continued into the year with other well known “superphones” like the EVO 4G, iPhone 4, Galaxy S line and Droid X, to name only a few.  Palm and HP webOS devices, as we know all too well, were not only left behind but were literally left totally out of the mix during the year of the superphone.  Though various form factors and features made for a less than definitive case for what exactly constituted a superphone, one thing all of these devices had in common was this, a 1GHz CPU.

By this standard alone did Palm finally enter into the superphone arena with the late 2010 release of the Pre 2?  Obviously yes, as the Pre 2 does in fact feature a 1GHz processor in the Texas Instruments OMAP 3630. So should it have a shot to be considered in the same class as those other phones? Read on.

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Interested in winning the next Palm device (whatever it may be)? Then consider this a reminder to kick your keister into gear and get that mock-up you’ve been pondering finished and into our inbox. You’ve got until midnight Eastern time on October 15th to get in your entries, and in spite of the leaks we’ve seen recently, we still want you to be exercise your creative juices and get us something unique. So get in your entries, we’ll dig out the best and put it all to a vote to decide who wins the next device (with two more getting a $50 PreCentral store gift certificate).

Above is a sliver of some of our favorites thus far - it was hard to pick, we've received a lot of fantastic entries and there's still time left! After the break check out a few of the above entries in more detail.

More: Contest: Mock-up the next Palm device... and win it!

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Currently, 82% of Americans own a cellular phone, and we expect that number to grow closer and closer to 100% over the next several years. But the device category we talk about most here on the sites of the Smartphone Experts network is underrepresented: according to a survey of some 37,000 individuals by Forrester Research, smartphones are only in the hands of 17% of Americans. If you do the math, that means there are 255 million potential customers wandering around in the space between Canada and Mexico (plus Alaska and Hawaii, of course) without proper mobile digital connectivity.

Now before you go and tout that more younger people own smartphones than older less tech-saavy Americans, think again. Forrester’s survey indicates that the ratio is roughly the same among members of Generation Y (18-30) and Generation X (31-40) as the general populace. And only one quarter of Americans have an unlimited data plan to supplement their phone; less than half have any mobile internet access at all.

We’re saddened by the number of Americans that don’t own smartphones, but by the same token we’re also encouraged by the potential size of the market over the next several years. There was a time when only a small portion of Americans owned computers, or had in-home access to the internet. Or owned a car, for that matter. Times are changing and more technology is finding its way into the homes, pockets, and hands of the people.

So what’s the problem? It’s the value proposition: smartphone makers are still running into hurdles convincing typically spend-happy Americans that it’s worth the extra initial cost and monthly charges to upgrade to a smartphone. Apple has experienced some success in making that case, and it’s an area where Palm and HP have struggled recently. But if that case can be made, the explosive growth the smartphone industry has experienced over the past few years will pale in comparison to the coming decade.

Source: Forrester Research; Via: CNN; Thanks Mannyman!

We’re sort of in limbo right now, waiting for Palm to announce, well, anything. We’ve had rumors, minor leaks, and insinuations here and there, but not a full-on iPhone 4-style leak. So what the next Palm device might look like or do is still kind of up in the stratosphere.

As such, we’ve decided to have a little fun. We want you to show us what you want the next Palm device to look like. And we want you to be creative. It doesn’t have to be a Photoshop job. You can make a video, whittle a model out of pine, shoot us telepathic visions of what you see (bonus points for that, by the way), or whatever else your heart desires.

Just two requirements. One: be visual. Two: be creative. To encourage this creativity, we’re going to make this whole deal a contest: show us what you think the next Palm device should be and we’ll put the best up to a vote. The top vote getter wins... drumroll please... the next Palm device. Whatever it is. Sweet, eh? Head on past the break for the sweet hot details.

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See, there are at least three different devices teased here: a bigger tabletish thing, a smaller smartphoneish thing, and a wide wristwatchish thing. Problem is this: all three are blacked out into oblivion. So what are they? If we had to take a guess, it’s a webOS tablet, a new webOS smartphone, and that internet-sharing wristwatch HP’s talked about before (the watch provides the web connection and shares with your devices, ala Mobile Hotspot). But are these mere concept prototypes, or is McKinney playing with actual devices we’ll see in the near future. While we are hoping and praying that these are actual working devices we’ll be using soon, we wouldn’t count on it. McKinney’s presentation is on computing five to ten years from now, not six months to a year.

Enough of our jabbering and speculation - what do you see hidden behind the black boxes? If you really want to find out, you’ll head to SXSW’s panels page and vote for McKinney’s panel (registration required).

Source: MarkatHP on Twitter, SXSW; Via: Gizmodo; Hat tip to Andrew

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...

HP’s strategy focuses on five key points:

1) The inevitability of the cloud as a compelling enterprise IT model;
2) The rise of mobility as the dominant computing platform;
3) The momentous shift from IT as productivity agent to communications & collaboration optimizer;
4) The stunningly steep increase in the volume of information that's being produced—and the fact that we're only in the early stages of that surge; and
5) The power of analytics to help organizations seize competitive advantage by being able to exploit the power of that information explosion.

To reflect these points, the company is putting together a set of unified products and services to cover the entire range of IT infrastructure. According to the article, HP intends to leverage webOS as a tool for keeping their business customers connected, in conjunction with new "analytical tools that will enable on-the-go workers to manipulate and comprehend and base decisions on those huge sets of data and information."

Robison himself states,

"'If you look at where we're going with the Palm thing—and actually it ties back to some of the things we've done with 3Com and getting the rest of that network built out so that we can have that free flow of information—it's all consistent….Then our announcement today on the web-connected printing stuff—same thing: it's all gonna be connected. Now, the interesting opportunity for us is—especially with all the work we've done with touch and in new user interfaces—we can make a much more consistent and intuitive experience for people across a wide, wide range of products.'"

Unlike the controversial remarks (subsequently clarified) by HP CEO Mark Hurd last week, the InformationWeek piece affirms that HP envisions Palm’s hardware as well as software playing a role in the company’s strategy. Good news for the Palm hardware group, as well as for users hoping for continuing (and rapid) webOS smartphone development.

Source: InformationWeek

One of the new apps in the Catalog is “The H. G. Wells Collection” by Appible and it goes for $3.50, there are nine of H.G. Wells’ sci-fi classics. But if you want something to read with the kids Appible also has Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” for $0.99, which is a story of a child named Mowgli who is raised by the animals of the jungle.

There are more stories from Appible like Moby Dick, Peter Pan, The Scarlet Letter, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Wuthering Heights and even The Complete Works of Jane Austen. For those who want to save a complete webpage as a PDF there is PDFMyWeb Pro by IT-Dimension for $1.99 with options for low-quality and grayscale saving for bandwidth and storage savings.

There are a lot of good free and paid applications in the Catalog so go on and hit the App Catalog icon on your webOS smartphone and see which ones you like.

Actually, the offering is valid with different phones, but (as you can see on the image above) from the webOS devices only if you buy the Sprint Palm Pre or Pixi you’ll get the free memory card. If you want to buy the Verizon Pre Plus or Pixi Plus then you can’t get the free memory card and the price changes, you can get the Pixi Plus for free and the Pre Plus for $139.99.

Now why is Walmart offering a 4GB microSD card with two smartphones that do not use any type of memory card is beyond me. Maybe is just to attract new buyers who might need a memory card for another device, who knows. And as we all know the prices for these handsets are good if you get the regular 2 year contract of course.

Palm’s Big Announcement

The Palm Pre is the first mobile phone to win “Best In Show” at CES. This is a great honor, such event houses numerous technology-oriented companies in one place to show off their consumer electronics as well as other gadgets. The Palm Pre announcement came with high expectations, and Palm’s stock jumped 35% right after the announcement, an indication that stockholders believe in the new device.

The Palm Pre and its first Accessories

The Palm Pre, a 3.1-inch 320 x 480 HVGA capacitive touchscreen smartphone, with EVDO Rev-A (at least at the beginning), WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 and 3G of course, together with GPS, and supports the A2DP wireless stereo profile. It has an extended gesture area underneath the touchscreen, but it also packs a full QWERTY keyboard when it’s opened. There’s a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field, the Palm Pre uses only the latest imaging correction software from DxO Labs, who actually is the leading competitor in the field of image analysis and correction and is used is all major camera brands including Nikon and Canon to name a few.

But most – if not all – of you already know about the hardware, so let’s talk about the most important accessory of the Pre; the TouchStone. The Touchstone charging Dock for the Palm Pre phone, which makes the Pre, one of the first smartphones to feature wireless charging using electromagnetic induction. Just place the Palm Pre on the Palm Touchstone accessory, and magnets quickly align the Pre phone (which needs a special back cover, sold separately), in the correct position for charging. There’s also a sleek car charger includes a removable 2.5 foot (76cm) microUSB cable for easy storage, and an official leather case that Palm calls a “simple leather pouch with a splash of color”. There were other accessories, you can read this post about them.

Pre Sightings, Rumors and More before the Big Day

Like any other gadget, the Pre had its fair share of sightings and rumors before it hit the shelves, so let’s talk about those things for a moment:
On the second week of March, the smartphone made an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Show, Engadget’s Editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky brought along the little black pebble to demonstrate just what makes it so special. It was a bold move by Palm, and everyone thought the Pre was about to be released, unfortunately, it took 3 more months for that. A month after, in April, the Pre was spotted on the hands of a couple of “kids” on a San Francisco parade, at that time, many people thought the pictures were Photoshopped. Then came along Angelina Jolie, who allegedly tried to adopt more Pre phones; “She basically said she likes the software better than the iPhone, she likes the thumboard for texting (although the keys aren’t big enough), and thinks the screen is beautiful but can be too easily scratched.” After that, the Pre was found playing Youtube videos and also catching a ride on Caltrain, there were more sightings after that, but you get the picture.

The rumors were many and will never stop, but one of them tipped the price since January, the rest are history. We could also go on and on with the many ups and downs of Palm Stocks, or how many analysts tried to foresee the future of Palm. Others thought it would be a great idea to see bigger companies like Dell or even Microsoft to buy Palm.

Palm had a private pre-release of the webOS Mojo SDK in January, followed in April 1st by the announcement of the Early access to their Mojo SDK program and the support by a third party developer for Legacy PalmOS applications. We got our own video of a hands-on demonstration of the Classic application (for Legacy PalmOS apps) on the Palm Pre. Shortly after, Palm begun admitting developers into their early SDK.

The Advertising Begins and the Big Day Arrives

Sprint made many geeks very happy, and then unhappy in a matter of days when they announced on their website the phone as modem feature on the Palm Pre, just to take it off later. But most of us forgot about that, when USA Today had a full page ad featuring the Palm Pre, and the TV had the first Now Network Commercial featuring also the Pre. Even though there was no announcement on release date and price we felt the Pre was getting closer to be launched, again, we were wrong, also, Sprint subscribers received an email about the Pre. The price plans for the Pre were confirmed a few months before the Pre was released. By the way, Palm also had TV ads for the Pre, but we all know how that went. Also, Sprint employees begun training on the Palm Pre. In May, we found out about training sessions and the possible launch of the Pre during a June 5th Lunch.

And finally, the big day was getting close, MyPre had a chance to review the great webOS device. Saturday June 6th 2009 will be a day to remember, the Palm Pre smartphone begun its journey into our hands, I got to my local Sprint store at 4 am, and there were already 13 people in front of me, by 5 am, there were about 60 people.

Palm Pre Arrives to other Countries and More

After launching here in the US with Sprint, the Pre went on to Canada with Bell, and after that, it begun to swim across the pond, towards Europe. There, it was released via O2 and Telefonica in Germany, Spain, Ireland and the UK. We also had rumors that China Telecom was planning to offer the Palm to its subscribers, but so far that hasn’t happened. Mexico jumped into the Pre bandwagon too, and not only tELCEL, but apparently, IUSACELL also might carry the little bugger.

There are rumors saying the Pre will arrive to AT&T, not officially confirmed, but the rumors of the Pre going to Verizon appear to be true, and it might happen as early as January 2010, probably with a new name. There were other news too, like the cat & mouse games between Palm and Apple, also Jon Rubinstein is now Palm’s CEO, the former CEO, Ed Colligan went to Elevation Partners. Also, Palm decided to dump WinMo in favor of webOS.

Palm Pixi

Back at the end of April, the news was that Palm had a second webOS handset on the making, the code name for that device was; the Palm Eos/Pixie with a candy bar form factor. Many rumors came and went, but in September, Palm made the official announcement; the Palm Pixi was coming, the rumors of the Eos/Pixie were true. The Pixi has a 2.63-inch multi-touch screen with 18-bit color and 320×400 resolution TFT display, a 2MP fixed-focused camera with LED flash, and unfortunately, NO WiFi. Pixi is also the first handset to launch with Qualcomm’s high-performance MSM7627 chipset. According to Palm, the Pixi is “Palm’s thinnest phone ever.” I bet it is, with dimensions of 55mm (W) x 111mm (L) x 10.85mm (D) [2.17 in. (W) x 4.37 in. (L) x 0.43 in. (D), and the weight at 99.5 grams (3.51 ounces), the Pixi is thinner than the Pre by 6.1 mm and even the iPhone 3Gs by 1.45 mm.

The Palm Pixi, unlike the Pre, has new and eye-catching Artist Series customizable back covers designed by California artists. By the end of October, Palm and Sprint officially announced a price of $99.99 with a two year contract, and a release date of November 15th for the second webOS device. But if if you are on a budget, there are places where the Pixi is cheaper, like Walmart and Amazon. Apparently, the Pixi might be heading to Verizon, a WiFi Palm Pixi recently cleared the FCC, and Palm wants you to Give Fun and Get Fun with the Pixi, according to their TV advert.

What’s Next?

What will the future have in store for Palm, Sprint, Verizon and everyone else involved with webOS? Well, nobody knows for sure, unless you have a time machine, but we know that pretty soon, our webOS handsets might get Flash support. And remember that CES 2010 is just around the corner, let’s keep our fingers crossed, and hope Palm wow us again with something new.

We also know that all the Palm Pre users are very happy, after the limitation on the number of apps that could be installed on the Pre was eliminated with the latest update to webOS. That is very helpful, especially now that the App Catalog has almost 1000 apps.