You know that something better has been made when you try it and after that the “old new” starts to look outdated and feels like its gotten older quick over short period of time.
That’s how I felt about iPhone after using new Palm Pre for couple of weeks. While it is not perfect, it did made my iPhone look kind of old, industrial and UI not so cutting edge anymore.
And that is how you know that something new, better has been introduced. There was nothing wrong with iPhone and it did not feel this way before Palm Pre exposure, but after you get introduced to something better, when there is something equal or better to compare to, the perception changes.
iPhone is phenomenal device but I think it has now a worthy competitor. Dare I say king might be dethroned (at least in some areas)? And that is wonderful. Both will get better from it.
I think of Pre as iPhone 2.0
2.0 in sense that it is device that you would design if you used all knowledge you had designing 1.0 and build new one from scratch without constraints of legacy support. And in sense this is the case since lot of Apple engineers have been hired by Palm to design Pre.
I highlight one category that’s big for me. Pre beats iPhone by wide margin in messaging. The push simply works great. IMAP IDLE, ActiveSync Exchange and as many accounts as you want. Notification system is way better than iPhone.
On iPhone push email is afterthought (you can use only single Exchange account) so you have only one push account plus Mobile Me Apple service ($99 a year). The notification system is a modal message box and you do not even get that on new emails. It was fine at beginning, but not anymore. It is crude.
Pre has multitasking and that works great. The application switching through cards is super intuitive.
User Interface is warm and inviting. Shape of device is softer, more approachable. Lot of small things are done right to make you feel at ease with device.
I had chance to play with new iPhone 3GS and while it is nice it is more of the same old, same old, and Palm at least for my usage scenario is much better fit.
Who would have thought this? When I started using Palm Pre I did not think it had chance, but after using it for couple of weeks it really changed my mind. Kudos to Palm. Bravo! Now get application store going, release SDK and fix the bugs quickly 🙂
But the point is you know that something new, something that you should pay attention to has happened when things don’t look the same after it. This happen after iPhone and is happening now with Palm Pre.
