Palm's Smartphone Market Share: Not Budging

not in the same quantity as other touch screen smartphones of course but i do see them regularly

im in nyc

- Roger McNamee - March 2009

AT&T has a bad rep here for dropped calls and deadzones all around town, I have an iphone (contract!) ....and it is a frustrating and more expensive experience than what a friend of mine has with his Pre.

I like the iphone, but the carrier has a big part to play. Of course, it may be the complete opposite in other major cities, but this is my experience. Also the bottom line is also important. You can go on about the iphone 3G being cheaper on a 2 year contract, than the Pre, but the Sprint plan over the lifetime of the contract is a helluva better deal....

I can live without another fart app before Jac*ss gets going.

42 blackberry
42 iphone
7 palmos/treo/centro
7 winmob
2 android
0 webos/pre

in strictly business settings, it's almost 100% blackberry.

this is all very fluid and changing rapidly.

look at the responses above - few if any of us here have seen them.

http://tinyurl.com/yl2vx67

So I agree with Darth, your posting of pointless drivel qualifies as FUD. And speaking of drivel, stop encouraging the we-com guy. While I prefer removable storage in my devices and will never trust the cloud without a large insurance payout, I think his half-baked presentation annoys the heck out of me as does his moronic list of so called benefits.

By the way, what is with this weird, cryptic description of locations that you guys are using? Are you really afraid of getting hatcheted to death by the microwave pizza eating, glue sniffing ex-con that visits PIC? I'll give you f'n GPS coordinates of my location. What do I care.

BULLSHIT. I AND MANY OTHERS HAVE NOT SEEN ONE PRE IN THE WILD. NOT ONE. NONE. AND THAT COINCIDES WITH THEIR SHITTY MARKET SHARE. SO I'D SAY IT'S PRETTY VALID.

p.s. stopped in a Sprint store and played around with the new Hero today. VERY nice device! i asked the sales guy what he thought of the Pre and how the Pre's sales were. he said "sales fizzled out quick" and they "got a lot of returns" and it was "not selling well". take that for what it's worth.

Gekko wrote:

maybe it's smarter to get one good phone rather than fight three crippled ones?

Says the Centro user. First of all I have two phones not three. (The iPod Classis is not a phone, my netbook is not a phone, only my Pre and G1 are phones). Second of all, that's a radical interpretation of the text of my post. I was bragging, not complaining. In fact now that I think about it, I was probably being a bit of a douche.

In any case my point was the one I put in my .sig, convergence sucks. Why should I waste time crying and complaining about my Pre's admittedly inadequate 8GB of memory when there's a perfectly good year-old 160GB iPod Classic on my desk? I use multiple computers at home and at work so using two phones is hardly a stretch.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

abosco wrote:
Isn't it expensive having three different data plans?

I'm sure that it is but as explained to Gekko, I actually have two phones (each with its own data plan). Since I'm on T-Mobile and Sprint which are considerably cheaper (about $70 each for generous minutes and unlimited data) than AT&T and Verizon, I'm probably paying about the as what a lot of iPhone and Blackberry users pay monthly for the priveledge of using one phone on their networks.

I was actually going to drop my T-Mobile plan when I got my Pre but I've found that having a second phone can come in handy. I can tether with my Pre and my G1 is still available for making calls for example. And while Sprint generally has better coverage than T-Mobile there are occasionally places where I can get a signal on my G1 but not on my Pre.

Ultimately it's all about doing what actually works best for you not what some cell carrier or handset maker tells you is best for you.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

abosco wrote:
I'm just curious. You're paying monthly with the G1 and Pre, plus you've also got a netbook and an iPod Classic? Nevermind the content costs to fill each of them - isn't that expensive to pay for all of that? That's why most of us try to find the one device that works.

Also, I'm curious because you're one of the few people on this board who owns a Pre. And from the looks of it, you buy a lot of tech and don't use it as a primary or standalone. That's not really good news.

Yeah it's expensive but the iPod Classic and netbook for example are one time expenses. I bought the iPod refurbished and the nebook, like most netbooks, cost less than $400 (the netbook plus 2GB of memory). Put together, my G1 and Pre cost me about $150 a month, this about what many people on Verizon and AT&T pay to use one phone on one network.

Moreover, I like to think that there is a method to my gadget madness. My iPod Classic has great battery life and carries far more music and video than a my Pre, G1, or even the much praised iPhone ever could so it would be crazy for me to retire it just because I have another gadget with some overlapping functionality. Frankly I think that it's more frivolous and wasteful to just stop using a gadget completely because you have the latest and greatest.

My netbook similarly comes in very handy. While many people who don't use netbooks like to malign them as underpowered, my netbook is actually faster than most of the ancient computers at my office and since it's a an Asus EeePC 1005HA with a great keyboard I can actually use it to control three office computers through Synergy (the network keyboard and mouse sharing software, not Palm's syncing solution). This allows me to quickly switch from one computer to another while saving desk space by tucking the other machines' keyboards and mice under the desk. It also allows me to share those machines with other people as they can use a machines' keyboard and mouse while I can use my netbook to control the same machine (it can make for some very amusing gymnastics at times). And since it's so light and has such great battery life, picking it up and taking it with me is a no-brainer. (My boss is constantly leaving his full-sized, supposedly more powerful laptop in his car, on his desk, and complaining that it is too slow.)

And my Pre is absolutely my primary phone. I never tethered before the Pre. I never rooted my G1 because it seemed too dangerous and like too much of a hassle. With my Pre by contrast, the Homebrew hacking is so easy that I've wildly customized it. I have dozens of applications Homebrew and from the App Catalog on it. I have custom Halloween theme. I never found a decent Twitter application for Android, webOS has three. I have a homebrew patch which blocks unwanted calls. No I don't use it as a standalone device. I haven't believed in convergence in almost a decade. Until someone invents microRTGs, do it all devices will never have enough battery life and there will always be areas where a dedicated device will be able to do one task better than the jack of all trades.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

abosco wrote:
I won't argue that. If it works for you, great. Added plus - you're stimulating the economy.

On the other hand, I see a beauty in the simplicity of one device. I've got a 16GB iPhone 3G that is full of content with little more than a gig left. When the fourth gen iPhone comes out, it'll be 64 GB, probably have better battery life in the same size because of an OLED display, run all of my apps, carry all of my music and video, and still cost $300 on contract. Maybe I'll get a netbook in the future, but my current phone and (hopefully) future phone make things so easy. I've got one skinny machine with me at all times.

What price can you put on sanity? I love being able to leave the pressures of the office behind and kick back with my netbook and its ten inch screen during a long commute. Depending on how many podcasts I'm carrying around, I can have upwards of a 100GB of content on my iPod Classic (including every episode of Battlestar Galactica and 30 Rock ever made) with plenty left over for whatever happens to tickle my fancy.

I installed My Tether once on my Pre and now I can use it to feed internet access to *any* Bluetooth capable computer. Is it really that hard? Maybe others might think so but I don't. I can leave everything at home and carry my just my Pre -- and sometimes I do just that. But if carrying a little 3lb laptop makes me a more efficient and productive worker -- and I think it does -- then why not do it?
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

Gekko wrote:

i like cheap, effective, and simple - but with value. i don't want to juggle and fight all of those devices. there is beauty in simplicity. and i bank and invest the difference.

Why you've probably just saved 3/8s of a penny by avoiding wear and tear on your shift key. Nevertheless I happen to think that being able to jabber incessantly on the Internet while others are fighting traffic has a value all its own -- as does being able to control multiple computers from a smaller one that I can take anywhere and being able to look up an online bus schedule in the pouring rain and being able to look up "that Michael Jackson movie" for that nice lady at the office at the end of the day from your phone. I don't juggle. I don't fight. Most of the time my devices stay in my pockets quietly waiting for me to use them and that's the way it should be.

Gadgets should make your life easier but Nerdvana is not on sale for $300 with a two-year contract. It is a state of mind.which must be achieved by learning how to use your gadgets -- be they just one or many -- to make your life easier. It is a destination not a product.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/