Palm Pre's best hope...vanity

"I'm bored of the iPhone" - This is a direct quote from a review of the Palm Pre. And it really sums up what Palm's "best hope" for success is --> VANITY. Just like this post, all those techies, early-adopters, and people with more money than brains who absolutely must have something that they can whip out [legally] and show off to their possy to prove they are the coolest dude in the group, they are all bashing the iPhone as "old" and "boring". But the Pre is "different" and "cool". That is why people buy the Palm Pre today. That is the only reason they buy it today.

Let's review the facts. To date, Palm has sold approx 150,000 Pres. To date, Apple has sold approx 25 million iPhones. The one thing you learn in manufacturing consumer electronics is that, the more you make, the better they get. The first few thousand of anything is junk from a robustness standpoint. You simply have to make a lot of anything to work out the kinks. Now, perhaps Palm crushed all those junky Pres. But perhaps not. Only time will tell.

From a feature standpoint, here is what you need to know regarding the salient differences between the Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre:

Key features Palm Pre has that iPhone does not have include:

1. Multitasking. That means you can run one app, leave it and run another app, and the first app will remain running in the "background". This is cool for some apps that need to monitor things on an ongoing basis, and is a definite advantage over the iPhone for those applications. Apps like SKYPE, Loopt, and Tweetdeck would benefit from this legit advantage.

2. Form factor. The Pre is decidedly smaller than the iPhone, so folks with small hands may like how it feels. The screen, however, is also slightly smaller, so you give something up in that tradeoff. IMHO, not enough reason to buy an unproven device.

3. Physical keyboard. The iPhone uses a "virtual" keyboard that some folks find hard to type on, whereas the Pre has an actual physical keyboard. The concept is cool, and I personally like physical keyboards like the one on my Treo 650. Unfortunately, I've heard that the Pre's keyboard is a little too small to be easily used [at least by the average man]. Again, this is a personal, ascetic reason to get a device.

4. WebOS. This term is used here to describe the entire User Experience [UX] of the Pre, which is definitely slick and cool. Again, if you buy on slick and cool, instead of on how to get things done, this could be a big factor in your decision. My problem with making a decision based upon who has the coolest UX is that, next week or next month, something "cooler" will come along, and you can literally go broke chasing these technology fashion trends. You better bring a lot of money if you like to do this sort of thing.

...There you have it. If you want these things, and these things ONLY, i.e. "to be the coolest kid on the block", go for it and buy a Pre. Let me know how it goes. I'll stick with my iPhone 3GS. Because I'm busy and I need to get something done. If you disagree, or even if you agree, let me know by writing a comment. Cheers.