THETRUTH

I went to the local bestbuy today to get the newest version of the Sprint HTC Hero and I stood in line for over an hour. In that hour I saw over 10 Droids being sold. The Verizon rep was there helping the Best Buy Mobile reps in getting everything up and running. They had 40 units and sold a quarter of them in one hour. This does not even include what verizon is doing. They opened at 6am.

Android is taking over and the buzz is out there. I saw moms and dads 40-50 year old people to teenagers buying the phone, some purchasing 2-3 units at once. I would guess most of them are clueless of the power of android. Android is getting more and more powerful each day.

The 12000 apps available will surely grow rapidly with all these new customers jumping over to android.

Where does this put palm in this game? I think multi task is great but is this going to be enough? The pre is going to verizon and with all the droid buzz I don't see the pre being a heavy hitter. The snapdragon coming to AT&T with a 1ghz processor running android and verizon to get another android phone by the end of the year. That makes 3 for verizon, 2 for sprint, and at&t to get atleast 2.

Oh just to add. I had and issue with my earpiece on my hero and got the newest stock hero with the google branding. This phone is even better than the first one and I thought the first one was terrific. HTC saw the problem and fixed all the issues within 20 days of release. Why hasn't palm done this when they clearly see all the issues with their build quality???

cardfan

That kb is crap. Screen is nice but the apps, including the core apps, aren't very polished yet. UI sucks.

Did i mention the screen is nice? It's downhill from there.

donm527

I just wrote a bit about my buddies Droid in this thread

http://forums.precentral.net/cross-p...-phugly-3.html

The Droid is a nice phone.
It Multitasks... He's playing slacker while looking for skins online to customize his phone or doing other stuff.

Google and HTC and Moto really came together pushing Android and kind of teaming up to build this momentum and come out with solid built feeling phones and playing with 2.0 its nice. they picked a perfect time where the 3GS is out for a while and nothing really new from them at this point. And winmo7 really isnt gonna be out for a while and Pre is really behind in everything and they have an Android in every price point to offer a better packaged phone then the Pre or Pixi. They are gonna give 3GS a good run too.

I think at this point Pre is somewhere in the back of the pack with Storm2. and if Verizon has a hit with Android and Droid and Eris, when they do get Pre, they will stuff it right next to the Storm2 (they really buried the Storm2 IMO... you dont see any push for it).

donm527

My buddy says the kb will be weird too but we'll see over time.
The screen is nice! Love glass. the rest of the phone is SOLID, metal and heavy. I like.
It has a virtual keyboard and he seems to be flying with it.
UI is subjective but I like what I see so far and he's downloading skins and customizing and looking to have fun. I'm hoping iPhone does a UI refresh soon. It's about time.

sivan

I think it's overkill and too biased toward a big screen at the expense of a good keyboard.

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THETRUTH

I love that avatar...ha ha ha

The pre has really quieted down dramatically. I still have mine but really considering selling it this weekend. I don't think the new updates will do much to build momentum. I mean most people that wanted the phone have already purchased. They might get their numbers up when it hits verizon and maybe at&t. New consumers have so many options now that I don't see why they would choose the phone with less options over the others with all the options out of the box with no waiting. I saw the droid today and have to say it's not the sharpest looking phone to me but the power of google behind it will make it a top seller for sure.

Palm really needs to get their heads out of the sand and wake up. The build issues and software bugs are overwhelming. I have a bunch patches on mine and it still runs slow and even after the 4th pre I still have the oreo affect slightly but not as bad as some people. I thought I would wait to sell the phone after the next update but with no date in sight. I am not left with another option.

UntidyGuy

The Blackberry Storm 2 is definitely being buried. RIM may have finally done it right, but it's a model year too late. Even to they are one of the dominant hardware companies, it's putting a big-time hurt on their stock price. It just goes to show that the market will not necessarily wait even a year for you to get your smartphone right.

THETRUTH

1+ it's more like 6 months. Competition is fierce. Maximizing profit has to be done right away. Hopefully Motorola won't have a long exclusive and maybe the Droid will come to sprint.

UntidyGuy

The Droid will never come to Sprint. Verizon licensed the "Droid" trademark from Lucasfilm. Perhaps Sprint can license "Borg" from 20th Century Fox. Then they can use the same Palm Pre girl for the Sprint Borg and the marketing campaign will make much more sense.

It definitely looks like Android/Droid may take the Storm 2 out. The question is whether the Pre or Pixi will be collateral damage or not.

pogeypetey

+1 for Sprint Locutus.

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"He would have scored a touchdown if he hadn't been tackled right there"

John Madden

mikah912

Unfortunately for Palm, this is a minority opinion (which doesn't make it less valid, mind you. Just showing that the winds are shifting against them).

Boy Genius Report pretty much hates Palm for some odd reason and buries it every chance they get. PhoneDog now considers the Hero and Droid to be the number two and three smartphones behind the iPhone 3GS. They used to have the Pre at number two. Gizmodo says if you don't buy an iPhone, buy a Droid.

Palm HAS to get another device with an upgraded OS to market before June.

cardfan

I agree. And this has more hype and more legs than Palm could ever give. And though the marketing is a bit geeky, it's not bizarre like Palm's.

Palm not only needs what you suggest but they need to fire the old marketing team and go from scratch. Thing is, there's a reason why people kept saying they don't have room for big mistakes. Palm is going through the cash.

The Droid would be nice without a kb..i'm not a fan of the landscape sliders. JMO. But then again, multitouch helps with virtual kbs which the droid umm..doesn't do.

Elysian893

Wait, 40 of them and they sold 10 in an hour? Were you by chance at the Pre launch? Sprint definitely sold more than that an hour when I was there, and I went to a smaller store, the flagship store out here had even more customers, people crowding the store all day.

THETRUTH

I'm guessing you haven't bought a phone at bestbuy before when there busy. They take average 20 minute per customer and there was three people working. This phone is going to crush other phones. Period. Palm is not a player in the game.

Every website has clearly stated who the leaders are. IPhone and Android. With all the sales of the pre at the release, they could have taken advantage with a solid product out the box. They decided to copy the iPhone plan of less is more and its going to proove disastrous. Opinion not fact.

NickDG

The Droid is the first phone worth buying from Verizon in years. Of course it will sell. But like Elysian893 said, the Pre launch was the same, moving phones very quickly.

Let's see what kind of momentum it can carry.

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Palm Vx -> Treo 600 -> Treo 700p -> Centro -> Pre (Launch Phone 06/06/09)

rc46

No multi-touch on the droid. I mean, come on its 2009. The keyboard is laughable. The point is that every device out there has a weakness or 2. There is no perfect smart phone. For me the Pre is the most complete package.

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mandystreasures

I'm locked in until June and I need to stick with Sprint for cost and corporate discount -- but the Pre and I are falling out of love. And why? I can't make phone calls from my own home, I have to go borrow my husband's Razr to call from my home. And basic phone calls are such a hassle on the Pre --- touchy dialpad, put it to my ear it dials three more digits, pick it up to answer it and disconnect the call (usually my husband who just hates this phone). Who thought I'd miss my rumor?

awesomepatrol

Anybody who thinks that Android will not sustain this momentum is fooling themselves. If anything, Android is only going to accelerate further. This is a good thing.

What remains to be seen is what, if anything, Palm does in response. It doesn't look particularly good right now for WebOS since its two main rivals are far larger companies with an enormous advantage in resources. We'll see what happens.

rc46

No EAS on the Droid. You have to use a separate motorola widget calendar for your Exchange calendar. 2 separate calanders.... Synergy on the Palm is so much better.

No universal inbox for separate gmail accounts.


Did I mention that 99% of the Android 3rd party apps wont run on the Droid until they are re-coded for 2.0? I could go on and on.

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awesomepatrol

Considering that the Pre's calendar is one of the most widely despised features of WebOS, I'm not sure if I would go around touting that one.

I had a G1 for a while, and using gmail on Android is so far ahead of any other platform it is simply not worth comparing it to anything else.