When it comes to the delivery date of the Palm Pre, the waiting and guessing is over - it's June 6! Sprint officially announced the date and Pre fans are going wild in anticipation of getting their hands on one. The price, after a $100 mail-in rebate, will be $199 on a two-year contract.
Now that the speculation about the Pre's official release date has ended, now it's time to begin to speculate on what Apple might do in regards to the Pre, which defiantly and blatantly is rubbing it's nose in Apple's face by including the multi-touch features of which Apple just happens to hold the patents rights? Will Apple, as they have promised, vigorously defend those patents, and two, if they do, can they actually succeed in enforcing them (Palm obviously thinks they can't) to remove multi-touch from the Pre, and could this end up in Palm's ultimate demise?
The Palm Pre is not only rubbing their nose at Apple by violating it's multi-touch patents, but doing so just days before Apple is expected to officially reveal it's newest OS iPhone update, and most likely several new iPhone models as well!
Both Palm and Sprint, in my humble opinion, are taking some very big and serious chances here, and with some very serious consequences if Apple reacts as it has promised to do, but these are chances that are necessary because both firms are desperately in need of the Pre succeeding, and that goes especially for Palm itself.
By introducing the Pre, Palm might be facing possible extinction from Apple's legal department, but if it doesn't introduce the Pre then it's definitely facing extinction for sure - the Pre (believed by some analysts) is Palm's last hope for survival! For Palm it really doesn't have much of a choice. With the Pre it might have a chance, but without the Pre it has no chance what-so-ever of surviving any more than a few more years at best.
So, will Palm's big gamble pay off? That is the $64,000 question, as they say. The Palm made it's mark by originally muscling in on Apple's Newton turf and now, quite apparently, they plan to do the same by muscling in on Apple's iPhone turf - but this time with the help of former key Apple employees, like John Rubenstein, who worked on developing Apple's multi-touch equipped iPod Touch!
As nice as the Pre is, it's fate, to a large extent, is going to depend on whether Apple can, or will, vigorously enforce it's patents on it's multi-touch mobile interfaces. If Apple doesn't confront Palm with it's deliberate violations, then what is going to stop any and everyone else from doing the same? Both Apple, and Palm itself, would lose any distinct advantages since Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, etc. would be able to copy anything they like from either the iPhone of the Pre! It truly would be a free-for-all, with devastating consequences for both the iPhone and Pre. In my mind, Apple simply can't afford to sit back and let Palm get away with using it's iPhone's multi-touch capabilities. Something is going to have to give, but the question is what, and also by whom?
Palm can't stop Apple from incorporating a physical keyboard, or allowing it background apps, or a dock (something else that Apple holds the patent for), or much else, but if Apple can enforce it's patents it just may just might be able to stop Palm from including multi-touch capabilities in the Pre. If Apple can and does decide to enforce it's patents, then I hope they do it quickly and they do it vigorously. I'm all for competition and what have you, but only if it's done fairly and without the arrogance of Palm rubbing Apple's nose in it's own mulit-touch patents as it has done with the Pre! If Palm wishes to compete with the iPhone, let it do so with it's own innovations, not Apple's and it's patents!
This is going to be an interesting and important tech story to watch develop. The fun, as they say, is yet to begin!
And that's my 2 cents 4 this Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Pre image via: Sprint
2 comments:
These new phones are so cool. I still don't own any though. I like how they got so much smaller over the years. The 90s cell phone I use to borrow was so big. It is amazing what changes happend in the last 10years.
Hey Mike, thanks for your comment. Like you, I don't have a phone, let alone a smart phone either, but yes, your so right...... it's certainly amazing how not only small they have become, but how so much more powerful and sophisticated they have gotten as well!
In fact, they seem to be becoming almost more like a Star Trek communicator than one of the old big phones of the past!
Phones like the Pre and the iPhone, among others, are the new must have gadgets of today. It's anybody's guess as to what they may morph into in the future?
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