Multiple webOS Devices Rumored for 2011

Palm should release a device in the Epic or Droid form factor, and put a lot more effort into beefing up the app catalog. People need a compelling device to buy and to develop for. I think they've got the OS for it, but they need devices. Just beefing up the specs of the Pre every year isn't going to do it.

Well, there was one brief time when Palm was truly on top of their hardware game. That was 2003--they started the year off with a bang with the T|C (400Mhz, 64MB RAM, gigantic battery, wi-fi, QWERTY + touchscreen + SD slot=still halfway decent specs nearly 8 years later) and to a much lesser extent, the Zire 71. But the T3 and TE that fall really were spectacular devices for the $ compared to Handspring's aging Visors and Sony's various Clies and all of the PPC competitors. Even right up to the Pre 2, Palm never again truly produced a no-holds-barred flagship device like the T3. Other than lacking wi-fi and having a weak battery and questionable slider reliability, that device really had no shortcomings. Then when they became "Palm0ne" the next year, it all went to hell on a skateboard. The LifeDrive would have been a solid device at the time had it had flash memory instead of that hideous microdrive and a decently debugged OS.

Comparing the Droid X (running Graffiti 1) I have in my pocket right now to the LifeDrive I owned only 5 years prior is just an ASTOUNDING bit of technological progress to comprehend!
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX

I think the Pre 2 is a decent device for someone who likes the WebOS UI and doesn't mind the form factor. IMHO, there isn't anything about the specs that make it stand out from any other device out there, though. If they don't come out with another beefed-up device soon (and for me, "soon" means summer of '11), I'm probably going to jump ship to Android.

@Pat:

I'm not sure it's fair to compare the TX to the iPod Touch. The iPhone itself only came out in '07, and the Touch came out after the iPhone. That's a good 2+ years after the TX came out. And before the App Store (which, if you'll remember, the iPhone didn't launch with) the iPhone wasn't the super-magnificent juggernaut it is today. It was basically a dumbed-down smartphone (e.g., no PIM) with the ability to play music. A lot of the sales were based solely on having an Apple logo.

IOW, if the benchmark we're using is the iPhone, then the TX wasn't quite as far behind as you think. Where Palm lagged behind most was in the screen technology. When the TX was out, there were already higher-res screens putting more colors on the screen at once.

@hkklife:

I never owned a T3, so it's hard for me to make that kind of comparison, but I seem to recall the Pre launching to widespread accolades. For a time (before it became apparent that the apps weren't materializing) some people even tossed around the "iPhone killer" phrase. And even before that, there were a lot of people in love with their Treos.

I think the beginning of the end for Palm (as an independent company, at least) had less to do with hardware than with the OS. They just waited too long to do something about/to PalmOS. It was definitely simple and functional, but even with better hardware specs (e.g., inclusion of Wifi) it just lacked the refinements of other OSes (e.g., the Windows smartphones of the day).

I'm hopeful that HP/Palm can redeem itself with a nice slab device. I agree with Pat that a phone in those dimensions would compete a lot better.

The TX wasn't lagging in 2005 with it's screen resolution, but it looks to be about average. Check out Pen Computing's best handhelds for 2005:

http://www.pencomputing.com/editors_choice_2005/pdas.html

The HP iPAQ hx4700 has specs that kick the TX's a** all over the place.

And I think this article nicely sums up the state of things in 2005:

http://www.tuxtops.com/?q=node/241

(e.g., even the devices that had 320x320 screens were displaying at 160x160 but double-pixeling).

In the end, you're right: The ugliness I took for a screen resolution problem was actually a limitation of Garnet.

"Ok a little perspective here. For quite a few years now these little devices have been with me everywhere I go. They've saved my bacon on more than one occasion and have the outline of my life. My contacts contain my associates and friends, my calendar shows the outline of days gone by and days to come, my notes contain simple thoughts to grand ideas, and it even holds pictures that tell thousands of stories. These little devices have been indispensable for some and almost like a friend to others. Though it is simply an electronics device devoid of thought and personality it has over the years been the bearer of so much information about who we are and who we want to be. With the above thoughts in mind it is no wonder we've become attached to the way we view this information. Many of us feel a loyalty to Palm and expect a certain amount of mutual respect and trust when it comes to our devices design. I have a feeling many of us feel they have betrayed and feel that trust has been abused. This is why many of us are so vocal. Perspective is a necessary vision and change is always good, but can be unpleasant at times, but this is only an electronics device. We'll still be the same people with the same plans, associates, and friends whether this device is a dud or not." - superdork

"For Palm Pilot owners, the standard applications, called To Do List, Expense, and Date Book, are magic shields that hold back the evil forces of chaos, forgetfulness, and midweek senility." - Steve Casimiro – Fortune

"Palm's aging operating system, Palm OS, was originally created for a relatively simple personal organizer; it was then added to and patched up to do things like power a cell phone—a task it was never intended to perform. It was a bit like using a lawn-mower engine to build a go-kart, then adding a bigger chassis and turning the go-kart into a real car, then turning that into a plane, and then trying to make the plane fly to the moon. Palm needed a fresh start." - Dan Lyons

Never underestimate Palm's ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Colligan Head Stuck

http://daringfireball.net/2006/11/colligan_head_stuck

Microsoft needs to realize their main competition is not Apple, but Google.