"Palm Pilot" Ring Any Bells?

Back in the dinosaur age of technology when a cell phone only made phone calls, people relied on Palm Pilots to keep their lives in order. These days, when smartphone like Blackberries and I-Phones do just about everything except serve you breakfast, the archaic idea of separate devices for calling and organizing seems downright strange to most tech-savvy users. The seamless integration of these services placed the Palm Pilot next to your VCR and CD player on the dust collecting shelf reserved for technological antiques. While the Palm Pilot probably won’t ever leave that shelf, Palm is banking that its new product, The Palm Pre, will be leaving store shelves in a hurry and dethroning the incumbent giants as the new “it” gadget.

The Palm Pre came out June 6^th, and did not draw the mass hysteria the iPhone did on opening day. No one camped out for days, but instead arrived and average two to three hours early in hopes of snagging a new Pre. Sprint is the official service provider of the Pre, and was selling the phone for $299, with a hundred dollar mail in rebate. According to a CNET article about the launch, the biggest lines came at Best Buy’s, which were selling the phone for $199, and eliminating the need for to go through the mail in rebate process. Retailers refused to give specific information on early sales figures, but said the stores experienced a “steady stream” of customers throughout the first day.

Early feedback on the Pre has been positive, but only achieved a three out of five star average user rating on the CNET website. The smartphone features a vibrant display with multitouch functionality as well as a solid Web browser and good multimedia integration. The Pre offered good call quality and wireless options include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Some drawbacks noted in the websites review were a cramped keyboard, and a lack of, video-recording capabilities, onscreen keyboard, and Flash support as the main drawbacks.

As a self declared “crack berry” addict I can’t say I would trade in mine for a Pre. However, after reading the reviews and researching the product, I think an individual in the market for a smart phone should consider the Pre. While it will probably never be able to compete with the ridiculous amount of apps for the iPhone, or the constant connectivity of all blackberry users, the Pre seems ready to take a bite out of the smartphone pie.