A VC - Latest Comments in You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:57:36 -0000

You live and die these days by developer adoption. Great point

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

mbldev — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:24:50 -0000

I have an additional perspective on all of this. The idea of the Palm WebOS is definitely innovative and interesting. But as a mobile developer I can tell you that I don't think they will ever get enough momentum to really do much. Meaning that there are so many applications for windows mobile and other's such as Java based apps and iPhone apps that they will likely get lost in the crowd. I have seen some of the best ideas never get off the ground. They came to market too late and with only so many developers they will just not get their attention at this point. So the issue of it being a closed solution or otherwise certainly doesn't help the Pre, but in the end it won't likely matter because of the above mentioned reasons and the hardware reviews have been horrible. If that isn't enough, just go to the store and put one in your hand and you will understand the reviews.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:07:20 -0000

Ugh

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

rafer — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:22:16 -0000

for anyone who was questioning the difference between how unlockable GSM and CDMA are, read this:

http://www.prethinking.com/...

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

Aaron Klein — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:16:38 -0000

Methinks that has something to do with how much Sprint paid to Palm for the exclusivity.

Obviously, the economics of the cell phone market are driving the exclusive deals and the locked phones.

Not sure if Apple ever feels they can make good enough margin on a $199 iPhone if AT&T isn't paying them $400 to lock in the $1600 in wireless revenue.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

Aaron Klein — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 20:57:56 -0000

Thanks.

Here's another example of why this works so much better. When you move a message to a folder using BlackBerry, the message gets moved on the phone, and the phone queues up a command to the NOC telling it to move that message in your inbox. If your connection blips or you're out of range, the command will go through as soon as the BlackBerry reconnects.

In contrast, when you move a message on the iPhone, it tries to connect to the server and send the move command to your mail server. If it goes through, iPhone then re-asks for the now-shorter message list and your message disappears on the phone. But if iPhone can't reach the mail server, it just undoes your command and the messages pop back into your inbox. It's just annoying. Amazing that Apple hasn't figured out how to make this work better.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

ShanaC — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:54:44 -0000

Behold the difference between machine language and human language.

We the human are imprecise- because we have nuance.

Machines (right now) have no nuance- but they are precise.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

ShanaC — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:49:19 -0000

Hate to break it you- but that is a form of lock in.

The most controversial part of the apps world right now are "off label apps" that are not approved by Apple; they are often downloaded from the web- but it seems that it isn't a huge amount of people are not bothering. Further, it seems that you need to Jailbreak the phone first.

What I would do to separate the apple software from the hardware sometimes.... issues like these....

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:44:22 -0000

I'm with you. That is the essential point of my post

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:43:23 -0000

Yes, but since we can now dynamically create ads to match the content why not "GSM pre coming soon, pre-order one now"

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:43:13 -0000

Everything is political. That's why I talk politics on this blog and wear mine on my sleeve. Those in business who try to hide their politics or keep them off their blogs are doing themselves and us a dis-service

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:42:21 -0000

And what about us rimmers?

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:42:20 -0000

No twitter love for the pre? Bummer

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:42:19 -0000

So we rely on hackers to beat this system. And beat it we will.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:42:18 -0000

You should write copy for rim. You've articulated very well why nothing compares to a bberry for me

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:42:16 -0000

Me too

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:41:20 -0000

I'm pretty sure about that

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:41:16 -0000

And blackberry allows apps to be downloaded directly from the web. Apple forces devs to use the itunes store which is clunky

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:40:15 -0000

Yes, I'm certain of it

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:40:14 -0000

When they come up with a gsm version I can unlock, I'll check it out. Sounds great

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

fredwilson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:40:12 -0000

Thanks!

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

David O'Neill — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:19:15 -0000

Just to clarify, most GSM phones can work on any GSM carrier. There are some caveats to that statement but as a rule of thumb it's true. There's nothing technical to stop you putting any GSM SIM in any GSM except that certain mobile network operators (carriers) cripple the functionality to force people to stay locked to them.

They also tend to cripple, where possible, the various Open OS devices out there. Windows Mobile, S60/Symbian, Android devices should work on all carriers without too much trouble.

I personally think Palm have made a mistake here. In my experience it's harder to go from CDMA to GSM than the other way.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

Prokofy — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:16:03 -0000

No, I'm just an ordinary consumer, not some telco kool-aid guzzler, tekkies often look for the evil hand of evil telcos everywhere, even as they remain blandly uncritical of Google, which removes a lot more of their freedoms and value than telcos.

There's a meme that "using a device" means you absolutely must bang on it with a hammer and crack it open. This is an affluent male/engineering/Silicon Valley meme that isn't shared by most consumers, who respect the notion that companies have to have proprietary hardware and software to stay in business.

Most people don't have that many toys, such as to have a felt need to hack, slash, jailbreak.

The most standard snarky rebuttal to any criticism of the sort I make is "I want to be able to copy my songs on some other device and they won't let me" or "I want to be able to use any network I feel like."

But most people don't have multiple listening devices beyond their i-Pod, and can't pay for all the two-year contracts of all the networks and server access.

Get a grip, you are in a bubble. Most of the problem with the user adaptation comes from this heavily-ideological arrogance that refuses not only to see what ordinary people live like, but that their own take on how they "should" be using technology is based in a discredited and unworkable collectivist worldview.

Most people feel no need to "jailbreak" their cell phones. Most people don't have to have a zillion APIs running ontheir cell phone because the use their laptops for most of these applications.

In fact, what's Leninist is the California ideology, which leads nowhere, except to a constant refrain where we're supposed to pretend to work (providing endless content on all these services for free) and you pretend to pay us (monetarize the services for a pittance, like Google Adsense).

In fact I have a very healthy sense of business, which is why I pointedly ask who is going to pay for all these servers, and why do so few get all the value sucked to their advantage out of the cloud?

Unless you're one of the lucky few widgeteers to moneterize your little API, or a very high A-lister blogger, you can't moneterize these services. That's a problem, if we're all going to be living wired and on line much more -- as we are doing.

One of the most idiotic and hackened phrases to come out of the Valley is this meme of "creating value". What that usually means is "how I pitch my consulting services" or "some big IT project". It isn't creating ordinary, useful value for *people*. It's like Lenin -- pretending to be for the people, and really in fact benefitting a corrupt and oppressive few.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

greghills — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:59:02 -0000

Brands will often target their ads to run alongside relevant conversations, so its no surprise a Sprint ad showed up. Some companies, like ADISN, are already building out the technology to create dynamic ads that where the product, product offer, or call to action changes depending on the content of the page.

I think Sprint should have run an ad on this post, promoting the Palm Pre, specifically the handset and OS, features which Fred praised in his post. Isn't that better than having the brand avoid the conversation entirely? Brands have no choice but to engage the detractors and display advertising is a very scalable way to do so.

Re: You Won't See The Palm Pre On Me

GraemeHein — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:40:27 -0000

This is far too much telco kool aid guzzling.

It's Leninist to use a device that you purchased in the manner that you wish to?

Your entire thread lacks perspective and an understanding of technology, business models, and what creates value for businesses and consumers.