BasiliskSt

July 02, 2010 at 5:37am

I have a Palm Pixi smart phone (the soap bar model with the smaller screen), but I didn't commit to Palm and webOS until after HP's acquisition offer. With HP I'm confident that the already excellent Palm webOS "cards" interface will receive future development and future products. I love the amazingly intuitive webOS interface. It multi-tasks and offers multi-touch. The learning curve for a smart phone is very easy. You only have to learn two gestures which the phone teaches you upon activation. The App Catalog is not yet as comprehensive as Android or iPhone. There are some serious Apps not yet available on webOS, but there are enough to add some useful functionality. I can't wait to see HP's webOS tablet. The cards interface is perfect for a tablet. And I expect HP to feature printing (unlike Apple). HP + Palm will finally give Palm the financial depth to compete and develop. Palm will give HP a significant point of differentiation for its hardware products. I'm truly excited. But I don't underestimate the effort that will be required to get consumers to pay attention to webOS in an Android/Apple saturated environment.

 I have and like several Apple products. I'm impressed with Android's maturation with the constant flow of new products and fairly frequent OS updates. RIM has to get a real browser to stay in the consumer game. (I know the new RIM OS is coming,) If Palm's own experience doesn't highlight it's a crowded and tough market, look at Microsoft's Danger/Kin/Windows Phone 7, or Nokia's Symbian experience. You can't be late to market and it takes a lot of resources to be relevant and maintain the development pace. HP can do that. I have my fingers crossed that they will.