The Palm Pre will be Twitter friendly. In a demo of the Palm Pre at the D7 conference a few minutes ago, Twitter search was showcased as one of its universal search options (along with Google and other search engines). Other features shown in the demo included the ability to sync the Pre to iTunes, download music over the air from the Amazon MP3 store, run multiple apps at the same time, and integrate third-party apps with other apps on the device such as the calendar. For instance, if you buy a movie ticket through a Fandango app, it can make an entry on your calendar.
In an interview on-stage, Palm’s largest investor Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners noted that Palm represented 45 percent of the capital invested by Elevation so far. McNamee compared Elevation to the early days of Kleiner Perkins, where the partners are fully engaged in the businesses they invest in and they invest in very few companies (Elevation has six portfolio companies and five partners). Palm is its biggest bet by far. “This will be the thing that defines us,” says McNamee. He is confident that there is room in the transition from feature phones to Web-enabled smartphones to carve out a decent business for Palm. First, he’s got to make sure the Pre does not flop.
Asked whether Apple would mind that Palm built iTunes sync into the Pre, McNamee shot back: “They are practically a monopolist. Consumers want their content.” The Pre can only sync non-DRMed content from iTunes. And there are other ways to get that content, but this is the first non-Apple device that syncs directly with iTunes without the use of third-party software. ” They can’t tell people what to do with music that they own,” says McNamee. “We are confirming their dominant market share. They are not stupid.”
Wow what a deal.
let it release. leave it alone.
…but I thought TC called the Pre a failure? Why are they still writing about it??? deadpool it and move on to more important things like the wonder of wonders… twitter
You’re right. The reason is that shoney is a little slow. So, be careful or you might hurt his feelings. Shoney = epic fail, deadpool with his complementary pre
iTunes is shit.
Good move. But make sure it syncs just as well as the iPhone–easy and simple being the key.
“partners are fully engaged in the businesses they invest in and they invest in very few companies (Elevation has six portfolio companies and five partners). Palm is its biggest bet by far.” -Interesting departure from the VC firms that tend to spread themselves thin over many portfolio companies. Not sure their Palm investment will pan out. Wish them luck since the iphone (like anything) could use some healthy competition.
this rocks!
whatever…
iTunes sync is huge, except that it doesn’t work with the DRM’d music. It’s a shame people don’t realize what a monopoly Apple has with the iTunes/iPod. Their DRM should be licensable so other players can sync with iTunes paid content. The iPod/iPhone are already hot shit as far as consumers are concerned, it won’t make them sell any worse, it will just be more convenient for the people who don’t have one.
test
Lets be serious, there is no way that apple is going to allow the pre to sync with iTunes without any external utility. I think palm is getting a little big for its britches. iPhone competition is healthy, but this device has been hyped to the stars, and even if Palm delivers the goods, I doubt this device is ever going to live up to expectations.
Wow that was a pretty serious response about iTunes. He makes it sound like they don’t have any arranged SDK licensing deal or anything with Apple. Sounds like they are just going for it.
The feature list of the pre, as well as it not being on att or controlled by such a restrictive company like apple, are all reasons I’ll buy the phone. I don’t get the crunchgear assault. It is all basically saying ‘we don’t know if this phone is as good as we think it is, therefore it will fail’.
Is the techcrunch/cruchbase staff just copy / pasting apple fanboy arguments off digg.com now-a-days?
They always have and always will.
TechCrunch = Apple Fanboy, this is just a given fact.
iTunes? Gag!
Since they abandoned the PalmOS for MS, I say Palm goes back in the oven where they belong.
Are we to take it from the headline that you feel being able to search twitter is a more important feature than the ability to run multiple apps at the same time or integrate third-party apps with the device’s apps?
While having such a concentrated portfolio is very risky, Elevation made out like a bandit with PALM even before the launch of the Pre.
Their $325 million Oct 2007 investment in PALM was at $8.50/share (after the $9/share cash payout), the Dec 2008 $100 million investment was at $3.25/share and also gave them warrants to acquire 7 million additional shares at $3.25/share and their Mar 2009 $50 million investment was at $6/share.
PALM closed the trading session today at $11.46, nearly doubling their $475 million original stake.
iTunes sync is very interesting, it helps Apple with anti-monopoly issues and it gets a ready made music/video platform for the Pre. That means there isn’t a need for yet another music app. I think this is a very smart move by Palm.
Apple will update iTunes so the Pre won’t work with it.
Expect that update this summer.
Yes, however Apple will most surely rectify that with an upcoming iTunes release. I plan to sync quickly!
Why would Apple do that? At the end of the day, it helps them out, ok so the user may not use an apple product to listen to the music anymore, but they can still use the itunes store and buy the music. I think this is a win win for both companies. I don’t believe Palm are doing this without agreement from Apple. I can’t think of any other non Apple product that use iTunes.
One more reason why I can’t wait to get a Palm Pre. *Excited*
"Why would Apple do that?" — Because that’s what they do.
Hahaha, the Motorola RAZR is officially in the dustbin of history, I guess.
@victor, when was it ever out of the dustbin? Really don’t understand why that piece of crap made any headway in the market. @Ken, point taken, but things chance. I can’t see Palm making a big announcement about this without having some form of agreement with Apple.
I’m pretty sure iTunes will disable this on their next iTunes update and someone will find a workaround.
The workaround will be to not update itunes. Although the best part about trading in my iphone for a pre will be never having to use itunes again ever ever ever.
True, Keith. I just brought it up as an example of a non-Apple product that came with iTunes. Hopefully the Pre won’t suffer the same fate.
Nokia gas a mediasynch app that integrates with itunes and iphoto so this capability is nothing new
The new palm looks cool.
Funniest thing: When Walt asked Roger when during the day would all the iPhone users switch to the Pre, Roger’s response was “4:20″. Search Google for 420, and you’ll see that it’s a meme shorthand for marijuana.
The breed of applications available for the Pre may be more light-weight than the iPhone’s, but the apps that come with the Pre out-of-the-box are pretty impressive.
got mine!!! my WONDERFUL hubby didnt want me there by myself & my 8 yr old did NOT want to get up at 5 am & go, so he went by himself. I was surprised cuz he told me Monday he was soooo sick of hearing me talk about that effin phone!! lol – he got there at 6am there were 2 cars in the lot but nobody in line.
at 7:30 i told him to go start the line – sure enough a few more people followed. Our BB had 10 & I (technically my husband) was first in line.
BB rep came out at 9 and gave “line tix” and started the paperwork.
The first one they tried to activate was defective so sorry to the person who was #10 and didnt get a pre!!
I got mine and will be playing with it for the rest of the day (at least)!!!! Talk more at http://www.PalmPreForum.org see ya there.