Comments on: Palm Pre Plus, Pixi Plus on AT&T — Will it Help?

By: lynnebk

lynnebk — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 02:01:19 +0000

I was THRILLED when I started reading your mention of Chapura Echo, and was all set to download it, until I saw that it’s not Mac compatible. I just bought my Palm Pre, coming from a Centro, and am so frustrated with not being able to use my Palm Desktop. Can you recommend anything like Echo that’s Mac compatible?
Thank you!

By: Lynne

Lynne — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:54:17 +0000

Hi Jeff:
I was THRILLED when I started reading your mention of Chapura Echo, and was all set to download it, until I saw that it’s not Mac compatible. I just bought my Palm Pre, coming from a Centro, and am so frustrated with not being able to use my Palm Desktop. Can you recommend anything like Echo that’s Mac compatible?
Thank you!

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:49:50 +0000

Just bought my palm pre plus, doing my little part in helping palm survive. It would be a shame if they went. Switched from an iphone and for my needs the palm os is leaps and bounds ahead of apple. I love it and hope palm survives.

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:49:47 +0000

Every sale ever made by any company “will simply buy more time” for that company. Conversely, every technology company in the world is never more than one hit product away from salvation.

It’s unhelpful to say that the Pre is a fail because there aren’t a wide range of apps for it; there are plenty of more successful phones for which there are fewer apps. If it’s really true that there are apps without which you can’t do you job, how about saying what those apps are, exactly?

By: prethought

prethought — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:34:01 +0000

I guess the one thing that makes the Pre standout by leaps and bounds over any other platform is a pretty hard for the marketers to convey. It multitasks in more ways than one. It keeps multiple schedules at your fingertips in one screen and yet separate at the same time. While many Android phones allow you to connect to multiple Corporate Exchange servers simultaneously now it doesn’t handle it anywhere close to as slick or as polished as the Palm Pre synergy does. It truly is an all business phone and I can’t believe they don’t market it as such. Of course all the little nuances that makes webOS shine can’t be clearly articulated in a 30 second spot. I admit there are way cooler apps on the Android platform but at the end of the day what pays my bills is the ability to communicate effectively to several corporations without having to carry multiple phones. Unfortunately for Palm it looks like flash is wining out over substance. WebOS makes everything else look clunky so I’m sticking with my Pre for the long haul and hopefully Palm will survive.

By: Jeff Debs

Jeff Debs — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:01:21 +0000

To answer Alan Zell’s post,…Alan, like yourself I am an old Palm user (Palm Pilot, Treo 650, Treo 755P) and this past January finally purchased a Pre Plus through Verizon. I’m VERY satisfied with the product. The multi tasking capabilities of the Pre will definitely and easily allow you to switch between running applications. As for syncing, that was a sticking point for me too as I have tons of (priceless for me) info that’s been backed up on Palm Desktop for years and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to transfer it to the Pre. Ultimately after reading many web-posts and reviews of the few products that DO allow you to transfer data from Palm Desktop to the Pre, I purchased Chapura Echo and it worked beautifully! I now use my original Palm Desktop via Echo and it syncs to the Pre every time.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:53:18 +0000

I take no offense or consider your thoughts an attack in any way, so no worries there! :)

First up – my needs are different from the needs of others, so a webOS handset may indeed be the best choice for some people. I’d never argue otherwise. I simply didn’t think it was the best choice for me after owning it for 8 months. It was partly a timing issue. Not all that much changed in those 8 months in terms of webOS — or perhaps, not enough would be the better way to put it.

During that same time however, I witnessed many more apps that I wanted or needed to use arrive on other platforms. And Android made a big leap in going from 1.6 to 2.0 to 2.1 in a few short months. I also wanted more pep in my phone and found it in the 1 GHz chip used in the Nexus One. So it was a combination of things that led me to my decision.

To your valid points about the iPhone App Store launching a year after the first iPhone — note that I waited a relatively long time to jump on board the Android train. I had a G1 review unit before the phone was launched in late 2008. I repeatedly said that it would take a good 6 months to gain traction because it didn’t have a wide variety of applications. And it took a while for that traction, but once it took hold, I saw more potential. Until that point, I wouldn’t even consider Android for my own use, nor did I until January of this year.

From my perspective — clearly arguable — Google is moving the Android platform along faster than any other on the market right now. I simply couldn’t wait for Palm to meet my needs. They may yet survive, and I hope they do, but the market is moving along at a very fast pace and is filled with good competitors.

By: Alan J. Zell

Alan J. Zell — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:00:52 +0000

I have been considering the Palm Pre Plus or Palm Pixi Plus to replace my Palm Centro. However, the thing I like about the current Palm OS is that when I’m doing word processing and need to check my calendar or other info on the OS, all I have to do it toggle over to it. From what I understand, with the Web OS, to get the same data I would have to go on-line to get it. No one to date can tell me if I can sync the Pre or Pixi with the Palm OS on my computers. Hence, I have not made the switch.

By: ojleblanc

ojleblanc — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:12:53 +0000

Kevin, I must confess that I am a little confused by your perspective on the Palm Pre. Having listened to the podcast regularly as well as regularly read this blog, it is my understanding that you “dumped” the Pre because of a lack of apps that you needed. Fair enough. But there seems to be a master narrative evolving in the tech blogosphere about Palm that goes something like “They have an amazing operating system, but Palm will die quickly; what a shame.” At the same time, there is a master narrative about Android– “Amazing operating system; it has a lot of room to grow and innovate (meaning it is not fully mature yet); I want to go along for the ride!” I just don’t get it. As I recall, and have found support via a quick search of the web, the iPhone 1G launched in June 2007 while the App Store launched June 2008; a year later. Yet, when the Pre was launched, folks wanted a robust WebOS app store pronto and every week it didn’t materialize was proof of Palm’s impending demise. At the same time, we seem to be content to wait for Android development to take place. Please let me know where I have gone wrong with this. And know that my questions are in no way an attack on Kevin. I value his thoughts and experiences, I listen to the podcast faithfully, and am just using his comments re: the Pre as a stand in for lots of comments I am reading.

By: Umed Rawat

Umed Rawat — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:57:08 +0000

Even though being a big Palm Pre fan, I dont think launching Palm pre plus or Pixi plus on AT&T is going to help Palm in any respect.

I think, it is time for Palm to release a new hardware, completely new form factor more screen real-estate and faster processor.

They could have waited for the release on AT&T and then alongside on Sprint a new PALM device could have been launched, making it more successfull.

Anyone on AT&T much rather prefers an iPhone, hence a killer hardware is much needed to get any kind of traction from those customers.

Here’s to hoping that a new PALM device is soon to be coming on Sprint, now that AT&T is only getting the Pre Plus and Pixi plus.