No one is going as far as to say that the upcoming Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre will be an iPhone killer, however, if the amount of buzz is any indication of how well a device does, the company potentially has a hit on its hand — or not. A BusinessWeek article today writes that the device will fail and Palm will struggle for not one, but a host of reasons.
The author William Hurley is far from unbiased. He led early attempts to organize and rally Palm’s developer community, which he deemed a total failure. Even still, Hurley may have a few points, which are hard to focus on given all the hype. Here’s a summary of the reasons why he thinks the Pre will be a flop and Palm will never get its fairy tale comeback story:
— The competition: He says Palm doesn’t just have to beat Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), but also RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) and Nokia.
— The price: Since the Pre costs about as much as an iPhone, wouldn’t you rather buy an iPhone rather than “an unproven phone from a company teetering on the brink of extinction, or at least irrelevance? ”
— The carrier: Palm has picked troubled Sprint (NYSE: S) to be its exclusive provider for the first six months, and while Verizon (NYSE: VZ) seems to be up after that, “half a year is a long time to wait to get a smartphone when there will be so many viable options available.”
— The apps: The Pre’s store, being called an App Catalog, will initially come with a handful of offerings, such as Fandango, Pandora, CitySearch and AP News. But access to the SDK is limited, so eager developers are out of luck.
— The timing: Hurley said Palm and Sprint probably thought it was a good idea for them to release the device before Apple’s event on Monday, which will likely feature a new device and at most feature a surprise appearance by Steve Jobs. In other words, Apple has the opportunity to steal Palm’s thunder, just two days after its release date.
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