Palm will unveil its second WebOS phone this week, internally named the “Pixie,” we’ve heard from a source close to the company. The debut will occur as part of Fashion Week in New York.
As we wrote back in April, the new phone will have the same operating system as the Palm Pre but will be much lower priced ($99). The latest information we have on the hardware specs is here.
Palm has never verified the existence of the Pixie, but enough sources in Asia and the U.S. have confirmed the phone that there is little question it has been in the planning stages for some time.
As usual, Palm’s timing is odd. Apple is holding a major event tomorrow that will likely focus on new iPod Touch features. The Palm Pre launched just days before the iPhone 3Gs
It’s been a bit of a wild wide for the launch of the Pixie so far, if rumors are any indication. In May, hearsay arose pinning the launch sometime in the second half of 2009. Right as we rolled into the second half, an analyst at Barclay Capital indicated that the handset was delayed into 2010, only for China’s Commercial Times to follow up the next day with a report that said otherwise.
Beyond the launch date, the rumor mill has also failed to positively nail down which carrier(s) would be getting the handset. While AT&T is more or less confirmed, its worth noting that mystery Palm devices have also shown up in both Verizon and Sprint’s inventory system.
Timing is definitely odd as is the order Palm decides to do things. How many WebOS apps are there now?
http://allwebosapps.com/
They launched the device before even letting developers really dive into the OS and SDKs.
…and so did Apple.
If palm is releasing pixie around Apple’s iPod Touch event and Pixie is lower-priced than the Pre, then what is Palm aiming at?
number of apps dont matter
the ratio of good apps on webos exceeds apples by far.
its not called pixie its called eos
As usual, Palm’s timing is odd.
Is Palm trying to compete with the Apple’s event? The confidence level is appreciable. Hope Pixie would survive in market for its low priced value.
Does anyone know why the mfrs. of hand held devices are insisting on using the qwerty keyboard format instead of something that may be more one-hand or two-thumb friendly?
Anything except a qwerty keyboard on a “smart” phone wouldn’t sell very well. Regardless of how more efficient it would be, it would be a major turn off.
Palm at this point needs all the help they can get. I find it very laughable that they are trying to steal Apples thunder here.
Business users love qwerty… think Blackberry. Consumers still love these things and don’t want to relearn typing on a device.
Gorgeous design.
Gorgeous design.
Does anyone know why the mfrs. of hand held devices are insisting on using the qwerty keyboard format instead of something that may be more one-hand or two-thumb friendly?
Apps aren’t everything. Even the holy iPhone was launched before a substantial app marketplace took shape. Regardless, WebOS is one of the easiest platforms to code for so I expect to see an explosion in apps once developers start to take notice.
The sleek UI should also help pull some of the weight for these new Palm devices. Hate those chat bubbles(TM) on the iPhone.
I actually kinda like the design. most people i know hates the look.
I bet they want to launch the Pixie before their earnings get announced (September 17th) so they can have a product launch to be (prematurely) ebullient about – and divert attention from their lackluster Pre sales to date.
i just had a thought.. if palm is releasing pixie around apple’s ipod touch event AND pixie is lower-priced than the pre – could the pixie be a non-phone version of the pre?
not sure how feasible this is.. but something that crossed my mind when i read this article.
I think the inclusion of a query keyboard with the number keys visible in a different color, points to this being a phone rather than any other type of device, and I don’t see Palm going into the non-phone market as I don’t think they would have much to gain, but it would be great if I could be proven wrong.
Maybe they should first get their act straight and finally release the Pre in Australia. I mean, it’s not like we’re living on an island or something.
palm has announced the pixi on their blog:
http://blog.pal...s-family-1.html
and
http://www.palm.com/pixi
Smartphone could be made official as early as this week, according to a supposed contact near to the company. The unnamed tipster claims the Centro replacement’s appearance will be tied to Fashion Week in New York City but doesn’t provide much else to TechCrunch other than the implication that the Eos will release before the end of the year.
Welcome palm. Hope it to support WiFi.
Apps aren’t everything. Even the holy iPhone was launched before a substantial app marketplace took shape. Regardless, WebOS is one of the easiest platforms to code for so I expect to see an explosion in apps once developers start to take notice.
The sleek UI should also help pull some of the weight for these new Palm devices. Hate those chat bubbles(TM) on the iPhone.