After months of promises and reports, and, for loyal Palm users hears of waiting, the next generation handheld technology from what once was the premier handheld builder, is finally here, in the form of the Palm Pre smartphone based on Palm's new WebOS, designed specifically to support applications linked directly to the Web.
So what does this mean for potential users? First, at least in its present form it is clearly aimed at the consumer rather than the business marketplace. But Wikibon members are consumers, too, and they often are among those at the leading edge of new technologies.
And according to all the reviews I have seen, this is leading edge. It is ahead of the iPhone in capabilities and performance, and far ahead of anything from RIM, Windows Mobile (which seems to be moribund in any case) or Symbian. It also seems to offer more than Android, which seems to have been largely forgotten by the market.
But for early adaptors the real question is going to be data migration, both onto its non-standard technologies and, very possibly, off of them again if Palm fails and no white knight appears to buy it and rescue WebOS – or if an eventual purchaser replaces the Palm personal information management (PIM) databases with its own versions, that use a different data architecture.
The thing to avoid here is having to hand copy large amounts of data. Not much has been written yet about what standards the Pre supports. For instance, does it support iCal (the calendar data synchronization standard, not the MacOS X application)? Will it sync data with online PIM systems such as the Google and Yahoo calendars or at least with Microsoft Outlook, which would provide a way to recover the data if users eventually have to migrate off the Pre, as large numbers of Palm users have already had to migrate off it.
Users need to ask the same questions about any third-party applications they use. The Pre does not support existing Palm applications natively. A simulator is available, however, that will run many of these apps, which is good news for existing Palm users who have apps they want to keep. But native WebOS applications are in the pipeline for the Pre. Before users start using them, they should be sure that that data can be read by off-platform replacements, either on the Web or on other, more mainstream (preferably Windows and/or Macintosh-based) apps.
As a personal note, I should add that I am writing from long experience. Over the course of my 20 years as a handheld user I have had to migrate from the Tandy 100/600 to the Casio B.O.S.S. (1988), from that to the Tandy Z-PDA (aka “Zoomer”) (circa 1995), from that to the Palm (1991) and now from that to a handheld sized tablet PC. All of these have been painful, in part because I am a heavy user with comparatively large amounts of data on my handheld but mainly because all of these were non-standard solutions with non-standard data formats. In each case they have required considerable hand reentry, and in some that has meant leaving some valuable data behind. The last move, which is still in progress, has been hugely facilitated because many of the applications I was using on my Palm have Windows versions that accept the data directly from the handheld. But I still have data on my Palm that I will have to hand copy, including a fairly large recipe book.
Action Item: Definitely consider the Palm Pre if you are an early adapter who likes to have the “latest and greatest” or if you are a Palm user who wants to stay with your third-party handheld applications. But be careful about ensuring a clear migration path off the Pre should it turn out to be a one shot, last gasp from Palm with no follow-on systems. Remember that handhelds only last three-to-four years at the most. That means that every three years you will be looking for a replacement, and if that replacement is a different technology you will want to take your data with you.
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