End of the Road: Why I am Dropping Off the Palm Pre Bandwagon

January 19, 2010 | By Admin In Technology |

Dear Palm,

Ithinkweshouldseeotherpeople! There, I said it. I know, that is never easy to hear, but I really think we should start seeing other people (devices). I hope we can still be friends.

Last summer, when I was having a bit of a bad time with HTC Touch Pro, which deserted me, you were there. You appeared as if by magic, ready to fill in the hole Windows Mobile had left. I leaped without looking onto your bandwagon, and was instantly dazzled by what you showed me, and started screaming my love for your WebOS from the rooftops of JAMM.

Sadly, these last six months revealed that my love for you was really little more than infatuation, couple with new tech blindness. To be honest, you just never reached the potential those early days promised. What I once called a revolutionary new operating system has proven itself to be an incredibly well designed operating system, with just abysmal execution. I still do believe that WebOS could have been the future, but those minor annoyances we discussed last summer have lingered, becoming significant problems.

The first warning sign came when none of my favorite mobile developers jumped on the new platform. They always say that when your long time friends do not get along with your significant other, then something is wrong. I should have heeded that advice when longtime stalwarts like Fizz Software, SPB Software, Ilium, and most of the game developers I know looked at WebOS and quickly moved along. Sure, a few developers tossed apps into the WebOS fray. Longtime Palm developer SplashData was chief among them; while some others have apps in the pipeline. But the truth is that while there are a lot of apps in the App Catalog (and many more available from other sources), most of them lack the professional polish which iPhone and even Windows Mobile apps offer. I also found far too many holes in the App Catalog, with far too much functionality which I have come to expect, simply not represented (such as RSS readers, ToDo Lists, and even Weather Apps which were far underrepresented).

More importantly, however, were the memory issues. The Palm Pre has suffered from these issues since its inception. Several upgrades have been released which change the way memory is handled, in an effort to make for a smoother user experience. Each time, however, I found that Palm would fix one area only to break another. This led to several instances of an update to fix the last update. Frankly, this became tiresome, and never really did a very good job of fixing the underlying memory and app lag issues. When it was all said and done, when the dust from these updates had finally settled, I am still receiving the dreaded, “Too many cards open” message (which require a soft reset) on an almost daily basis; and the lag time associated with loading and operating various apps (especially the calendar) continues to plague the device.

The final straw for me, however, came earlier this month, with yet another operating system upgrade: WebOS 1.3.5.1This update brought on the collision of my two biggest problems. While the update log claimed significant changes to the App Catalog. The biggest change for me, however, was the apparent inability to download or update any apps. This left two of my three most frequently used apps (The Weather Channel and Evernote) dead in the water after new updates failed to install. After several days of frustration, I finally made the decision last night to switch over to the Android Operating System, with the purchase of an HTC Hero.

I will admit that I am a little saddened by the decision. WebOS really did have a lot of to like, with its revolutionary interface, Palm’s contact sync system, and email handling. I have never seen any mobile device which could compare with WebOS’s management of cloud-based data. It easily drew contacts from numerous online sources (Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and others), and seamlessly combined them into one universal contact list. Likewise, I will really miss the Touchstone charger, which is one of my all time favorite accessories. Still, these two areas are no basis for a relationship, which has otherwise lost its foundation of trust.

I still love what Palm offered with WebOS, I just think it has become apparent that Palm is not the company to pull this one off. So, Palm, I think it is time for us to see other people. My HTC Hero shipped this morning.

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