Very interesting previous posting regarding the editorial over at ZDnet re the above. I must say this is something that has been on my mind for a while now and it's something that I hope Palm will prove me wrong in a big way in the coming months. Nonetheless, I can't help feeling that there appears to be a certain degree of complacency, dare I say smugness?, creeping into the palm philosophy. Along the lines of well, we designed the best smartphone in the marketplace nearly 2 years ago therefore we can just sit back and wait for the rest of the opposition to catch up....but can they? It seems to me the opposition is catching up and catching up fast. As the ZDnet editorial says Palm is fortunate enough to have a huge developer community behind it and to a certain extent I think they expect and rely on these developers to plug the gaps missing in the OS system programme wise. That's fair enough as palm has stated its intention to move away from software developing to hardware but it still has to produce the new devices that the software guys can use to keep developing better and better software....is that happening? As regular readers may know I have recently moved from a treo 650 back to a seperate phone / pda combo. I did the same about 14 months ago before I got the treo 650 and was using a treo 600. At that time I bought a motorola V3, seduced by the hype I think with a diligent dose of hindsight. That phone was supposed to be some sort of revelation in the multimedia world...well it was certainly a revelation to me in the sense that I couldn't believe how ill equipped it was to do anything else except make calls and send texts. Email on it was a nightmare and the alleged browser was slow and truly raised the standards in ineffectiveness to new, previously unchartered heights.
So it was back with open arms and a cheery smile to the welcoming world of palm and the new 650... a year later and I have returned to the deadly duo combo this time with a Sony W810i...this is a type of walkman phone and the difference in quality, useability and feature set compared to the moto phone is huge. It has edge, lightening fast email and browsing capablities, a built in radio, video capabilities, a 2 megapixel camera, a built in RSS feed...sound familiar? Yeah, that's right...it's an extremely capable multimedia device that is compact, extremely well built and easy to use. So this is how much phones can improve as multimedia devices in the space of one year? Frightening but at the same time extremely good news for potential purchasers. I tell you, virtually all that these new phones lack to make them serious treo multimedia contenders is a decent text entry system
So, I hear you ask, what is your point? Well, it's twofold..firstly, palm can't afford to sit back and rest on its laurels as the opposition are learning and boy are they learning fast..they're learning and catching up quick. Secondly, this worries me because first and foremost I am a palmaddict. When purchasing a new gadget I look to palm first and have done for years, they have always been innovative..it is part of their history and raison d'etre and it is what the punters like me, expect. It's been a long time (in the fast moving tech world) since the last major palm based treo revision and despite rumours, lies and more rumours there doesn't appear to be much coming out in the short term....come on palm, time to get the finger out before the multimedia device waves you a cheery goodbye!