Comments on: The road to the Real Jesusphone: Why is Sprint launching two days before WWDC?

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:47:29 +0000

lmao

By: RealGadget.com The latest gadgets, videos and news from around the web

RealGadget.com The latest gadgets, videos and news from around the web — Mon, 25 May 2009 11:46:09 +0000

[...] site, after all. (This is obviously easier accomplished with a touchscreen phone like the iPhone or Palm Pre.) Once the bird has been flipped, you’re [...]

By: Search-that: News for a 2.0 world !!! » Google working on picture-based captcha to save us from ourselves

Sun, 24 May 2009 18:00:43 +0000

[...] site, after all. (This is obviously easier accomplished with a touchscreen phone like the iPhone or Palm Pre.) Once the bird has been flipped, you’re in. It sounds a heck of a lot easier than some of [...]

By: The Far Edge » Blog Archive » New Zealand Telco Seems To Further Verify New iPhone — On Twitter

Wed, 20 May 2009 18:57:43 +0000

[...] there is very likely a new iPhone coming very soon. Probably to be unveiled at WWDC and launched sometime in July. But it’s easy to forget those are all still rumors [...]

By: New Zealand Telco Seems To Further Verify New iPhone â On Twitter « Kentmihlbauer’s Blog

Wed, 20 May 2009 18:55:28 +0000

[...] By kentmihlbauer Yes, there is very likely a new iPhone coming very soon. Probably to be unveiled at WWDC and launched sometime in July. But it’s easy to forget those are all still rumors [...]

By: Rhetology

Rhetology — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:28:22 +0000

[...] there is very likely a new iPhone coming very soon. Probably to be unveiled at WWDC and launched sometime in July. But it’s easy to forget those are all still rumors because [...]

By: New Zealand Telco Seems To Further Verify New iPhone — On Twitter

New Zealand Telco Seems To Further Verify New iPhone — On Twitter — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:03:37 +0000

[...] there is very likely a new iPhone coming very soon. Probably to be unveiled at WWDC and launched sometime in July. But it’s easy to forget those are all still rumors [...]

By: Griffon

Griffon — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:21:37 +0000

I don’t know… has anyone at CG used the pre? As far as I can tell everyone thing has been hands off to date. That screams UI and usability problems.
I hate AT&T as a service, dropped calls all the time frequently lies about the signal strength, edge is garbage and getting worse all the time. then I have little love lost of Apple notification service years late… the constant bullshit with the app store random censoring and control freak attitudes (as a consumer I get tired of hearing that shit and it makes me think less of apple), poor battery life, poor reminder/nag functions,
Despite all that,I’m kind of ok with my iPhone yeah it utterly fails as a PIM, particularly the crappy lack of nag functions for reminders and notices (so lets see the phone makes a tiny beep and wiggle and then goes black? very helpful you could have 16 emergency notices and not know it). BUT… I do have a bit of money into some apps, apple has a new something coming out and the Pre…
Well the Pre is $299 and then they are asking their customers to play roulette with a mail in rebate?! Fuck that shit. If nothing else, this shows that Palm/Sprint dose not ‘get it’ and are totally out touch with not only their existing customers but potential customers. That bodes really poorly. That to me screens they skipped on QA, hardware (recall the treo screen debacle? I had 6 different units with different screwed up screens) and god only knows what else is not finished. If you can’t figure out why 299 is a joke and why people will burn you at the state for a mail in rebate scam then you probable can’t be bothered to make a device that works right out of the box. Harsh? Unfair? Untrue? Weill I’m sure we will be finding out pretty dam soon.
I guess I’m in the wait and see camp. If they had come out a month or two back it might they could have built up a wave but now everyone is going to wait on apple and find out what and when is the next over hyped device. If apple doesn’t have a huge lag time the pre could still birth and if the palm SDK dose not totally rock they won’t get the dev support to make it fly (they are all ready sucking air for game developers, again with the not ‘get it’).

By: Allison

Allison — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:03:57 +0000

I think this was a bad move. As much as the media seems excited about the Pre, I’m hearing *no* buzz in personal and professional circles. No excitement. No anticipation. No one waiting to get a new phone in order to order one (and I do have several friends waiting to upgrade their iPhones).

Everyone I know who has an iPhone likes it, flaws and all. No one is itching to jump ship. Same with Blackberry. I don’t get the sense from my Blackberry friends that they are aching for something new.

Palm may have had a chance two years ago with the Pre. But nothing I’ve seen says that it’s totally revolutionary. It may be *better*, but if it’s incremental improvements that will mean little. Brand loyalty and reputations have already been established. Incremental won’t cut it at this point in the battle, they would have to do something to capture the imagination.

And I think trying to go up against a 3rd gen iPhone is a mistake. I suspect they get 2 days of coverage, and then become a footnote. Apple puts on a show unlike any other company I’ve ever seen. Competing directly in a publicity battle is a fool’s errand.

By: jake

jake — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:43:25 +0000

Who’s going to buy a Pre when there is speculation of new Apple iPhone announcements the following week. If the launch weekend for Pre is a dud, then no matter how great the Pre is, can Palm recover?

By: slappy

slappy — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:52:22 +0000

Yeah it should launch a few days early. After iPHone 3.0 and when the new hardware is released, the Pre will be quickly forgotten. This way they have a few days to rack up some sales. Hopefully enough to keep them afloat after burning all their money in advertising.

By: Rahul Kishore

Rahul Kishore — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Definitely saw him walking around downtown palo alto over the last couple weeks.

jobs walks!

By: nogero

nogero — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:23:16 +0000

Make jokes and wise cracks instead of removing that photo and an apology. That a sure sign of what?

I’ll see what your sponsors think of it. The sad part is you probably think I am a zealot of one type or another. I am not. I just learned respect for other people, cultures, and beliefs when I was a little boy, and your behavior is despicable.

By: RB

RB — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:32:52 +0000

Any of the reasons are probable. Though there was too much time between the Pre announcement and product release. Had it been released within a month of announcement, there would have plenty of time to make adjustments and updates before WWDC. They could’ve even worked that into a campaign “here’s what they promise – and we all ready have it!” that sort of thing.

The problem as I see it is that if the Pre is a hit, it won’t be a hit for long. WWDC will suck the Pre air out of the news and it won’t come back until the hands-on head-to-head comparisons of the latest smartphones begin. Good Luck Palm!

By: Dan Grossman

Dan Grossman — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:44:56 +0000

I had to wait over an hour in line to get one of the last Samsung Instinct’s when that iPhone-competitor launched at Sprint.

By: Lee Adkins

Lee Adkins — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:14:02 +0000

That’s kinda my fear. Sprint already somewhat screwed over an okay device by trying to do a direct comparison with an old product. Remember the Instinct? They blew a huge marketing campaign comparing it to the iPhone, only to have the iPhone 3G come out a short while later. Sure, the iPhone 3G didn’t even come close to addressing all the features that the Instinct was parading, but that didn’t matter. Consumers immediately associated the Instinct with the old iPhone, which made the iPhone 3G feel like the newer, better device.

As long as Sprint lets *consumers* make the connection between the Pre and the iPhone 3G, I think it will do very well. Don’t make the mistake of specifically targeting a near-obsolete handset directly in your campaign again.

By: John Biggs

John Biggs — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:05:09 +0000

The new CG motto: CrunchGear – Strong Ties To Israel

By: Jehosephat

Jehosephat — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:06:14 +0000

Sir, you are a poet!

“However: bupkus.”

Not sarcasm. Made me laugh.

By: Ian Mikutel

Ian Mikutel — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:02:40 +0000

Well its already been admitted.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:54:41 +0000

“Right now the Pre is all hype. The media interest is surrounding it’s release. [...] Also, Pre and all the other handsets are competing with the current iPhone, and many of them are just on par if not a bit above at most. You have to think that since the iPhone hasn’t seen a major revision since it’s initial release that within the next year we’re going to see a pretty dramatic upgrade that is going to edge a lot of these handsets out.”

So, on the one hand, the Pre is all hype and we shouldn’t waste our time until it’s released. On the other hand, even if the Pre is better, just you wait for Apple to respond with their next version which will blow the Pre out of the water.

In other words, ignore the hype for the Pre but pay attention to the hype for iPhone 3.0.

Personally, I think your reason #2 is the right one. We all like the underdog, so they’ll get plenty of attention. All Apple will be announcing at WWDC, regarding the iPhone, is vaporware. “Yeah, our next revision to the iPhone will be out at the end of the summer (unless there’s some unforseen delay) and we’ll have all those things that the Palm has today.” Even if Apple brings in new phone hardware (”Look! Shiny!”), it’ll still be running iPhone OS 2.2.

Now, if Steve was giving the keynote, Apple would be able to get away with all of this. But with Phil and Co. doing it, the lack of RDF will certainly cause some uncomfortable comparisons between iPhone and Palm.