Consumer Preference, Market Share For webOS Drops

I think it's reasonable to say that it's not good news that Palm is losing mindshare to Android. But the question to ask is, just how bad is the news, and how much significance can you attach to it?

Given that the Droid is a newer phone, it was all but inevitable that the Droid would take some luster off of the Pre and Pixi. But the question to ask is, how long will that last? If Palm expedites the native app support that seems to be on the way, the paucity of their App Catalog offerings could very well be a thing of the past. Then there's Flash, WebGL, and the new app distribution process. Hell, there could even be movement on the video recording app. (It's not as if no one's put video recording on the Pre before, after all.)

Don't get me wrong: From what I've seen, the Droid is a damn good phone. But Palm obviously still has a few cards (no pun intended) left to play here.

I'm in the same boat. The only Pre I've seen in the wild is mine. However, I can also count on one hand the number of iPhones I've seen. I think it's somewhat a question of whether or not you're particularly in the position/happen to take notice of what phone someone is using. You also have to take into account the relative size of the phones. Droids are more noticeable just because they're much larger than Pres. And finally, don't forget that the Droid is much closer to its initial launch date. It's somewhat predictable that a phone launched Nov. 6 would have more buzz in January than one launched last June.

I think you're right that Palm needs to open up the app distribution model. Hopefully, today they'll give more details about that plan to give developers URLs for their apps if they don't want to go through the App Catalog process. That's in addition to the expected announcement of upcoming support for native apps in 1.4. The announcement of an official video recording app wouldn't hurt, either. :)

Gotta remember Palm's financial history at the same time you think about what Palm did and didn't do.

Palm had LOST important carriers and was in dire financial condition, o much so that they had to get a cash infusion to even survive. They were trying to redifne themselves because they KNEW where they were wasn't going to work.

So they had to find a carrier that was willing to buy into a brand new product.

Sprint historically had backed Palm with, for example, the Treo 300. Sprint, too, had to have a game changer for their OWN financial reasons.

From my POV, going with Sprint seemed (after the fact) like a given.

I believe as well, however, that Sprint was greatly disappointed in the results. We already know Palm was disappointed with the sell-through out of Sprint, its main wholesaler (Sprint sold through to end-consumers, of course, but also to retailers like BestBuy).