But anyway, thank you Tom, for continuing to alienate Apple non-fanatics, in the end with commentary this biased, you end up hurting your cause and credibility more than you do Palm’s.

Sure, but that management is Jon Rubenstein, who headed the engineering team. They otherwise left him alone; from the same Daring Fireball article quoted above:

“They hired Jon Rubinstein and gave him control over building a new hardware and software engineering division.”

All of engineering is top notch, the other groups seem several steps (more like a whole flight) down. It’s hard to believe the same group(s) that made the mistakes I pointed out could have been involved much with the team that actually designed and produced the Pre. In my view the differences between engineering and the rest of Palm are so radical as to preclude that possibility.

I’m not sure why everyone is so riled by this post.

First, this post does NOT bash the Pre. Not at all. In fact, it states that the reviews are promising, and links to an excellent compendium of those reviews. Right off the bat, the defenders of the Pre are preaching to the choir; I think the Pre itself is cool.

Second, this post DOES ridicule (and mock) Palm’s management in terms of the Pre’s ramp up to launch. I bullet-pointed numerous examples that I think no rational individual would consider “smart” PR moves. The Palm sales/marketing/management teams have been ridiculous. Honestly, if you think Sprint claiming that they do not want lines, and in fact are trying to avoid them, is smart business, that’s fine. But I wouldn’t want anyone with that attitude selling MY product. I consider that something to be mocked.

Third, just yesterday an item came up that I could have included as yet another bullet point for ridiculous Pre marketing moves. This one comes from jkOnTeRun, which maybe those here won’t be so quick to bash since it doesn’t have ‘Apple’ in the blog name:

“Yep, that’s it. It’s time for Palm and Sprint to fire the PR firm they are using for the Pre launch.”

So you see even jkOnTheRun has identified an example of Palm stupidity in managing this rollout.

Fourth, The Jon Gruber quote above was primarily about Rubenstein’s engineering team, and what they’ve accomplished in terms of a hardware/OS platform in only two years. He’s running WebOS in emulation on his Mac and is impressed. He hasn’t used the hardware yet, but tends to trust the positive reviews (as I do). In short, Jon’s post is primarily about Palm’s engineering team, and he says they’ve done a great job. I agree with that 100%, it’s quite impressive. But that’s NOT what my article was about.

Fifth, to help drive the point home between what this article intended, as opposed to those thinking I’m Pre-bashing, I said this in my comments above:

“The stark contrast here between Palm engineers, which appear to have done an excellent job, and Palm’s sales, marketing and management teams is amazing. The engineers may just have pulled off an amazing feat, but the rest of Palm is bumbling around. Let’s hope the former can overcome the latter.”

Finally, I have to ask: Are those here really unable to separate the device from the launch? The engineering from the sales/marketing? The technical from the PR? If you think the guys at Palm outside of engineering have done a great job on the Pre, so be it. Let’s just say I disagree, and provided numerous examples of why.

1) i know this is “THEappleBLOG” … but that does not mean that you guys have to bash every Apple competitor. You guys some times sound like those “PC” fanatics.

2) PALM’s trying to stage a comeback. give them credit for that. their product seems different and cool (unlike Microsoft products) . try and let them stand properly on their feet and then APPLE will have a good competitor. REMEMBER, ONLY A GOOD COMPETITION WILL BRING THE BEST OUT OF APPLE.

3) stop comparing APPLE and PALM . you are insulting Apple’s reputation by this comparison

Lastly , i too am a Mac n Apple lover . But i would go out an try a radical phone like Pre , just for the kicks in it. I wish you guys also would open up your mind and welcome a healthy competition. don’t stoop yourselves to a level where you guys would be called narrow-minded Fanatics.

“it’s quite possible that they have done everything right since then.”

Tom Reestman today:

“it’s hard to think of anything Palm did right”

Mmmm, artificial drama.