There's
never a dull moment when Palm investor Roger McNamee
sits down for an interview, and his latest chat with Fox Business is no exception -- in addition to saying that the
Pre launch was a "dream come true," he more or less implied that all future Palm devices will have hardware keyboards: "Our goal is to address all of those people who say I cannot have a real life without a keyboard -- I can't live doing one thing at a time." Yeah, it's not much, but taken in context it seems like he's saying that keyboards and multitasking will be Palm's major differentiators against the iPhone. That's not to say he thinks the Pre is destined to kill Cupertino's baby -- in addition to calling Apple "the most successful company in the history of Silicon Valley," McNamee also reiterated Palm's characterization of the iPhone as primarily a consumer-centric media phone: "If what you care about most is listening to music or playing back videos, the iPhone is probably the right phone for you." That's a pretty slickly-delivered backhanded compliment, if you ask us -- although from El Rog we'd expect nothing less. Check the whole interview after the break -- it's a good one.
[Via
Everything Pre]
posted Jun 9th 2009 11:08AM
Roger just made one the best, most concise arguments for buying a Palm Pre, and gave kudos to the rest of the smartphone market. This is a man that can get you to believe in his product.
Roger McNamee is correct, the iPhone is primarily a consumer facing device with about the only enterprise concession (which could have been a real deal killer if lacking) being Exchange support. That said, the iPhone is so good that it was really the first device that corner office types en masse forced IT groups to support regardless of supported device lists or required feature sets etc.
Marin Perez writes more on this in Information Week:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/iphone/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217800170
how come all the palm pre tv media coverage seemed to be on fox business channel. is there a conspiracy here?
Yeah that is what is happening. *eyeroll*
Roger McNamee was correct on a lot of fronts! WOW, if you are skeptical on buying the pre, just watch this interview.
I had to make my way to a computer cus i couldn't watch the video on my G1. But holy crapz that was a very very good interview, and it totally reasons why there is room for the Pre and also clearly states its market positioning. I am very impressed. We'll see if I actually make the move to buy a Pre once I've stolen it out of my wives hands long enough to see if I like it. I am planning on waiting for the Instinct 2 and then making my decision. Or the Palm Eos, I dont really have too many options on Sprint. And dont say Winmo either, I'm not a fan.
You're actually contemplating the Instinct II over a Winmo phone like the Touch Pro2 or Touch Diamond2? Insane.
I agree with Mr. McNamee. I won't get the Pre even if made in GSM form, because I'm not a big fan of sliders. I'll probably give the Eos a go though, unless Palm and (or more likely AT&T) really screws that device.
I think Roger may want to focus on making a phone that doesn't crash whenever you close the slider. Hopefully the next webOS phone will have better QC of the hardware because the Pre is awefull in that regard. I love the webOS and think it's got more potential than Mobile OSX, but I had the original iPhone and it never crashed on me multiple times a day
My girlfriend has had it since launch and on such problems, did you even own it or are you basing this on what you've read