Remember when Apple was almost dead? Even then, the Microsoft guys didn’t come in constantly and gleefully predict the collapse of Apple when Windows 2000 shipped. They didn’t incessantly declare that Macintosh was dead because the Microsoft ecosystem was shipping 100x as many machines on its platform.

Back then, Apple acolytes talked about how “being the biggest isn’t everything,” and how a choice of machines is a good thing, and that one size didn’t fit all, and how competition keeps things moving forward.

But now that they’re in the driver’s seat, they cannot STAND the idea of competition. Any phone that ships from Palm, or Android developers, or anyone else, must be CRUSHED INTO THE DIRT!

Apple is far, far worse than Microsoft EVER was. They have deliberately crippled their phones so that things like tethering and open connectivity don’t work. They regulate who may develop and sell applications on their platform. They even regulate what applications and data their own users can have on their phones — with the ability to remote wipe them if you “break their terms.” They lock you to a single network and brick your phone if you modify it to work on other networks.

No hardware keyboard, no multitasking, an “app store” filled with fart and boob-jiggle “apps,” and one of the most arrogant and fanatical userbases on planet Earth. The legions of phone users who don’t use Apple’s stuff will be CHEERING when Palm or Android or even Microsoft dethrone this bunch of wieners.

Don’t go for the iPhone-killer label, because people are always going to think the comparison comes up short. If they’d focused on building up a great community beforehand, this could have been a totally different launch day, but also a totally different build-up.

1. Getting SDKs to developers earlier would have helped build early-stage apps, and had developers evangelizing the platform well in advance of the release. A directory of upcoming apps (from early-release SDK devs) with “I want this app” voting buttons would have given devs feedback early on, but also given Palm an idea of what people were interested in doing on the phone even before its launch.

2. Sponsoring ‘public user’ days by raffling off trips to Palm’s HQ for ‘average Joe’ testing, complete with videos and such. Total transparency. $10 tickets for a chance to win a tour of the Palm Pre HQ and meet with the team – all proceeds to go to a charity. Free flights and hotels for the winners. Candid feedback on user experience stuff. Blogged/videod/documented.

3. Same experience for devs, based on which pre-release apps had best community feedback earlier on. Palm could have purchased the apps from the dev community as pre-installed apps. Fly top community devs out to meet with Pre team. What would that have done to your development resume and street cred, that one of your apps made it on to the Pre at launch?

Instead, what did we get? Standard CES announcement, then months of nothing, then some web ads, then low inventory, store experiences that are the exact same as every other phone on the market (plastic models that don’t work, unfriendly staff, etc.).

Palm had a chance to really change how phones are developed and launched. They had a huge community of people *wanting* something new, and they blew it.

Sprint: http://coverage...jsp?language=EN

AT&T: http://www.wire...coverageviewer/

btw… I’ve never dropped a call on my iPhone

If you read the bloomberg and WSJ article on the pre sales projections from the weekend, they both mention multiple times about the lack of a marketing campaign.

there were no pre commercials and a few print ads. they hype you refer to was coming from blogs and tech sites excited about the phone.

compare that to the marketing machine of apple and the campaign for the iphone before its release. if you draw the same conclusion as you had above, you are not being honest with yourself.

I swear, it is morons like you who have gotten this contry to where we are today. Stop trying to be jailhouse brokers and go back to pretending you know how to do something else.