Since there are so many potential Pre defectors in this forum, I just had to ask this question: If Palm came out with a phone that is equal to the Evo, at about the same time as the Evo, would you stick with Palm or get the Evo still.
This is something I have been contemplating for the last week or so. What worries me is the slow addition of Apps Palm is experiencing while Android is sky rocketing. Which way will the developers go? What good will a super Palm device do me if there isn't much developer support for it? Will the super Palm phone be enough to change the tide?
Betamax was technically the better format, but VHS won.
Opinions?
Welcome fellow defector.......
It would all depend. I got to play with my first N1 yesterday and I have to say it was very nice. It was responsive and the keyboard wasn't that bad. However, I only did play with it for ~5 min. WebOS is very nice and has a wonderful user experience, but they are really lacking mainstream support, which is what worries me. Right now I am pretty set on getting the EVO, unless Palm does release some amazing new hardware. If that was the case I would give both phones a long day of testing at a sprint store (assuming both are on sprint).
Developers are still in a pickle right now. You really have 3 platform to pick from and all have their strengths and weaknesses. Apple has the biggest user base, which means the most potential money. But Apple runs their app store like a dictator and may decide to refuse to accept your app for no apparent reason. Android on the other hand is completely open and you are basically allowed to do anything, but the platform is fractured, which means you have to write in code to deal with multiple versions of the OS and different hardware specs. WebOS is the easiest of all platforms to develop for, but it still doesn't have a very well developed SDK and is arguably a dying, or at least has an uncertain future, platform.
If android can standardize in some way, maybe something along the lines of what MS is doing with WM7, then I think I move to android as a developer. With all of the new android devices proliferating I see android's user base becoming larger than apples quickly.
If Palm wants to survive they need EVO quality hardware and they need to iron out a lot of the bugs in WebOS, the random reboots for example. They also need the backing of major developers. Gameloft and Glu are great, but what about doc2go? I am not sure epocrates will pull their software out of beta for WebOS and that is a huge turn off to the medical community. How do you get that backing? Well you need to make a case that people will pick up your OS and that you aren't going to fade as a company (Palm has failed at this). If HTC bought Palm and WebOS came out on HTC hardware, I think more developers would come to WebOS.
Also, just for reference, one of the major deciding factors behind the Betamax vs VHS fight was who the porn industry supported. They choose VHS and look who won? Palm needs the porn industry to support WebOS
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