For the last 16 months*, I have proudly carried a Palm Pre, despite the snickers of iPhone fanatics and attacks by Android fanboys. I was a Palm loyalist and had been using Palm products since the days of the original Pilot. I defended the platform as growing and full of potential, with more apps coming just around the corner. The phone's sluggishness would surely be addressed in another point release. I even liked that sharp edge at the bottom of the phone. Despite all this, I walked into a Sprint store last week and sold my Pre back to them for $22 and change, knowing it might be the last Palm product I ever own.
This all sounds very dramatic, I know. All I did was change phones. Fair enough, but at this point our phones are the most personal of all the personal computers we use every day. My phone is never more than 20 feet away from me, and I get the feeling I am not alone in that cellular attachment. I use my phone as my alarm clock, watch, calendar, MP3 player, mobile email manager, Web browser, and portable gaming machine. It also makes voice calls. For me, changing phones is huge, and probably for you, too. Here is why I made the move.
Web OS 2.0 Isn't a Big Enough Change
I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak at Web OS 2.0 and I found it underwhelming. It was much faster than the OS on my old Pre, but the underlying functionality was the same. The ability to stack cards is cool, but it isn't revelatory. The company says that a lot of work was done on the WebOS APIs to make it easier for developers to build apps, but that doesn't help me right now. This feels less like a point release to me, rather than a major upgrade.
The Palm Pre 2 is Only on Verizon
The original Palm launched on Sprint, and although I can't prove it, I think Palm's most loyal customers are still on Sprint. So what does the company do with the Palm Pre 2? It releases it on Verizon only. Ahem, doesn't Verizon already have a totally kick-ass smartphone? That's right; the Palm Pre 2 will go up against the Motorola Droid 2 with little more than a warmed over product refresh. Yeah, good luck with that.
My Contract Was Up
As a longtime Sprint customer, I qualified for the discounted price on a new phone. All the carriers do this to get you to stick around, and the incentives are usually enough to keep people from switching. So what are my current Palm options with Sprint? As I noted the Palm Pre 2 is out, even if I wanted one. I can't even "upgrade" to a Palm Pre that works as a WiFi hot spot, that model is only available on Verizon. What am I going to do, get to a Pixi? Not bloody likely.
Sprint Launched 4G in NYC
The final nail in the Palm Pre's coffin was the fact that Sprint launched 4G in New York City. And yes, I know it isn't really 4G, but then again so little is these days. WiMax offers 5Mbps downloads anywhere in NYC, which is a hell of a lot more convenient than hunting for open WiFi hotspots. Now 4G isn't just a reason to change phones; it's a reason to stay with Sprint. And as should be clear by now, staying with Sprint meant continuing to schlep around a phone that is falling further behind the competition every day or moving on. It wasn't easy, but it was time to move on.
Maybe a year from now, the WebOS will be robust enough for me to come back to the Pre. My biggest problem with my Pre was it was too damn slow, and the Palm Pre 2 is definitely faster. If HP can attract more third-party developers and grow the number of products that use the OS (tablet please!) I may come back. But right now, I am post Pre.
Still think I should have stayed with the Palm Pre? Make your case in the comments below, but don't expect to change my mind. I'll tell you what I bought and why tomorrow.
*CORRECTION: My original copy said I had the Pre for two years. I first tried the Pre two years ago at CES, but didn't buy it until June, 2009 when it launched. Sorry about that.