Apple nips Palm in the USB socket
The Palm Pre, launched from as Sprint’s iPhone-esque device, is capable of everything and more. As it has been in the past, nothing exactly branded as an iPhone killer has actually done anything other than fall flat on its back, scaling the mountain casting the smartphone shadow.
The Palm, though, does a lot of things better than predecessor phones, and in some cases, better than the iPhone. It runs applications in the background and offers the ability to seamlessly transition between them, something the iPhone does not do. It’s the one area that the newest incarnation of the iPhone is lacking, and Palm has capitalized on it some. It can also sync with iTunes, offering the same music playing ability as the iPhone, supposedly leveling the playing field.
Except in mid-July, Apple cut compatibility with the Pre device with iTune update 8.2.1. It is one of the few times Apple has gone out and struck against another device maker (outside of Microsoft) and it may inconvenience the current users but potentially dissuade those on the fence between using Sprint’s superior network to AT&T.
If Apple had played its cards right and used either Verizon or Sprint for the iPhone service, there would be no competition and the iPhone would reign supreme. AT&T benefited tremendously from the exclusive contract, and even with an inferior network, 3G dead zones and sporadic issues with call handling, Apple has made steady gains in market share.
Rob @ July 18, 2009