- Two phones (Pre Plus and Pixi Plus) coming to Verizon.
- Pre and Pixi also to be available on AT&T very soon
- Verizon phones are capable of being used as MiFi-style WiFi stations. So you can tether a number of computers to your Pre or Pixi at the coffee shop.
- A new version of the WebOS operating system, with significant upgrades, which will be available to all existing WebOS phones as well as these new phones
- Third-party development open to everyone, as opposed to the small test group it was released to previously. Anyone with a web browser can sign up and write apps
- New SDK for development, which allows the use of some C+ code. (Previously all WebOS apps were HTML/Javascript only)
- Flash 10 availability on WebOS
Let’s take some of those one by one.
Verizon and AT&T: Palm now has phones running WebOS on 3 of the 4 major carriers in the US. Apple can’t say that. Google can’t, either. They’d like you to think that you can buy an “unlocked” Nexus One and use it anywhere, but the fact is that the only carrier you can use a Nexus One on is T-Mobile, the smallest carrier in the US. The Droid is on Verizon. No Android phone runs on AT&T or Sprint, yet. So you have more choices with WebOS, which will allow you to choose a carrier that is more likely to have better coverage where you need it most. And, if you buy a WebOS phone today, you will still have to buy another one to switch carriers later on, but all your apps will be able to be ported over, and the UI on that phone will be consistent with what you’re used to, at least. That’s about as good as it gets in the screwed up US telco system. MiFi: Palm will soon have phones that you can tether on Verizon. Neither the iPhone nor the new Nexus One can be tethered in the US yet. And MiFi-type tethering is even better, because more than one laptop can use the connection at a time. So I could whip out my Pre Plus, and both me and a few of my friends can surf the web on our own laptops. Very cool. Updates to the WebOS being available to all WebOS phones: This is something Palm was smart to copy from Apple. Keep the number of models limited, and keep the feature sets between those models at least somewhat consistent. The Pixi and Pre both have hardware keyboards. They both have touch screens (with multi-touch, by the way, something that Google has yet to implement in the OS). They have similar specs in most regards. So you can be reasonably certain when you buy a WebOS app that it will work on your Palm WebOS phone, whichever phone that is. A developer for WebOS can also be reasonably certain that his or her app will work on the entire installed base of WebOS phones. Google’s Android OS is on many different phones now, and even some tablet devices. Each Android phone maker creates its own version of the user interface, and includes whatever features it likes. So some Android phones have keyboards. Some do not. Some have accelerometers. Some do not. Some can upgrade to the latest version of the OS. Many can not. Etc. There’s no easy way for a developer to test his or her apps on every Android device, and there’s no guarantee that the Android device I buy tomorrow will run all the apps I bought for my current Android phone today. It’s all one big crap shoot. The C+ code for developers and opening up the development to all: Palm made it a point to show off some A-list games running on the new WebOS update today. Very smart move. The fact that Android cannot run software anywhere near this sophisticated, thanks to its ridiculous 190MB storage limit, never seems to come up in articles about Android. If you don’t think games are important, watch an iPod Touch ad sometime. Why do you think that Apple, a company that has scorned games since its inception, suddenly features games in all its ads? And it’s not really just about games; it’s about the level of sophistication that games demonstrate on your device. WebOS just graduated from “baby software” status. And it removed the biggest weapon iPhone lovers like myself use to put down WebOS. Palm is likely to have at least a few developers consider dabbling in WebOS that wouldn’t have before. Well done. Flash: I couldn’t care less about Flash on a mobile device, personally. Actually, that’s not true. I care very much that Flash isn’t on my mobile device. I wish we could eradicate it from the desktop as well. It’s a memory hog. It inspires laziness in designers. It’s non-standard. It has the potential to give Adobe the same kind of control over the Internet once enjoyed by Microsoft with Internet Explorer. It’s the ultimate lazy man’s way of doing video on the web. Put simply, it’s a poison that needs to be eradicated from society. Which is why Apple and Google are trying to crush it. But Palm, who has little else it can use to differentiate itself from Apple’s offerings, is very wise to embrace Flash on WebOS. I predict that the implementation will be thoroughly disappointing. (Most Flash web sites will not work on a touch screen with your fingers, despite what everyone else seems to think. Designers, who are already too lazy to make alternate mobile versions of sites without Flash won’t suddenly try to design Flash sites that leave out all the extra features of Flash that won’t work in the mobile version, either. So what you’ll get is a phone that can “run Flash” but will actually function on one out of every ten or so Flash sites. The inconsistency will drive people totally nuts.) But that doesn’t matter. It’s a bullet point on a press release. It’s a sales tool that will probably prove at least minimally successful, until the public learns the hard way that Flash is better off dead. So where does that leave Palm? Six months ago, the whole world was convinced Palm would be closing its doors by now. But it turns out that the WebOS might just have some staying power. I keep hearing fans of the iPhone talk about how “Android is good, because at least someone has to give Apple some competition and keep them on their toes.” I have yet to see any Android phone that is a threat to Apple, and I see the entire Android strategy as a bad copy of everything that failed for Microsoft’s Windows Mobile over the last decade. But Palm is doing some things that Apple should be watching. At the very least, I’d be sure to sign up the iPhone with a few other US carriers in the next six months, if I were Apple. And I’d get that tethering MiFi thing happening, too. Maybe Palm doesn’t stand a chance against Apple, either. But if I were mounting a strategy to at least grab up enough market share to keep myself in business in what has become a very tough battle for customers, I’d probably do what Palm is doing right now. Rubinstein seems to be copying Apple’s strategy where it makes sense, while also setting up some differentiators wherever possible. Certainly, if the iPhone were no longer an option for me, for whatever reason, I’d consider WebOS long before I’d consider Android. And if I were Google, I’d take a few notes from Palm and stop trying to follow in Microsoft’s poorly-implemented footsteps. The biggest mistake Palm made today was the fact that it made these announcements today, at CES, in the midst of ten thousand other announcements. Here’s one area where Google was better at copying Apple. Perhaps, though, Palm doesn’t have enough pull anymore to call a special event before the big trade show and expect people to show up and pay attention. Hopefully by the next time they have something to announce, more people will be ready to lend an ear.
