iPhone3GS or Palm Pre?

By David J. Ferrell

This summer we have seen the greatest evolution of mobile technology in world history and the greatest competition is between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. Both are cell phones BUT they are much more. They are hand-held gateways to the almost infinite knowledge/data that is archived on the internet. Besides bestowing very useful, informative and fun applications, the cell phone revolution has spawned a very mobile communication system that boggles the mind of those who bought those BRICKS ie. the first handheld cell phones. Today, teens text at 75 words a minute, their parents do the same at 8 words a minute. You can email an astronaut in space as you drive through a school zone, if you know her e-mail address, at least before September 1, 2009 when that behavior will get you a ticket (see Texas Transportation Code Sec. 545.425). And, she can respond at the speed of light; don’t worry, Texas has no jurisdiction in space.

Well, now which cell phone should you get if your old contract is about to expire? The iPhone 3GS is a marvelous device. It has access to nearly 50,000 applications, it is sleek and powerful. I will not articulate a thorough evaluation here but I will point out the main difference between the two heavy weight competitors for mobile technology dollars.

I chose to purchase a Palm Pre on June 6, 2009 (first day available). Some people will joke that I was the first nerd in line at Best Buy. That’s not true!! I was the second. Anyway, I bought the Palm Pre and almost took it back three times. Then, as the haze of 3G technology lifted and I began to understand the miracle of 4G I saw the genius of WebOS and knew I would not go backwards in my quest for the best mobile technology for now on the market.

The iPhone can run one application at a time, the Palm Pre multitasks, I have been running my calendar, my GPS, my contact list and memo pad as I was sending an email and an instant message while listening to a music stream from Pandora, all at the same time. This was a test I was conducting I wouldn’t normally do all that especially while driving to the courthouse. BUT, it is possible and the implications are enormous.

A big drawback to the iPhone is its only carrier, AT&T. There are dead spots in many different places. The Palm Pre’s exclusive carrier, Sprint has its problems too. Another big problem with the iPhone is the word PROPRIETARY. That means Apple has its hand in almost everything that the iPhone does. Here is where the Palm Pre will excel, and if you can wait until early 2010, Verizon will become a Palm Pre carrier.

The Palm Pre Mojo SDK (Software Development Kit) enables anybody to create, install, and debug locally hosted Web applications. This SDK puts the Palm Pre into FREE Developer Mode, which opens Pre's Linux developers to remote login. Once your genius kid in India or El Paso gets in the Pre's command shell, they will discover how robust and open the Linux OS at WebOS' base really is. I predict WebOS will be used on netbooks, notebooks , and desktop computers and even on the CPU (computer) in your refrigerator etc. in your house of the future.

Once Pre developers get into the SDK, they will exploit the easy access and use of the command line, shell script, and C. There isn't another mainstream mobile phone that is as effectively rooted at the factory. So, even though there are few applications for the Palm Pre right now, as compared to the iPhone, get ready, I predict a tsunami of Palm Pre NONPROPRIETARY applications will emerge AND, they will be free or cheap. Imagine this, you will be able to hire a geek kid somewhere to write an application for you that does what you want EXACTLY and you might spend fifty bucks for the programming. The program (application) is yours! Then share or sell that application to others who want that application but didn’t think about it until YOU did.

As a postscript to this article which I wrote in July 2009, a final comment: Just recently, Motorola and Google have teamed up and released “The Android” or “Droid” smart phone. Since it is so new, I would investigate this new communication system that could eclipse all other smart phones and devices. Google the term “ANDROID SMART PHONE” and read the articles. This is Android 2. Google has been very successful in its ventures to provide technology FREE OR CHEAP. That alone is worth further investigation.