Palm Pixi Will Debut in Mid-November for $100

Ed Hardy · 10-29-2009, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Varjak

QF, it's for someone who wants a decent device for texting,

The Pixi is a better texting device than the Pre. Because it's a slider the Pre's keyboard is slightly recessed. As I discussed in my preview of the Pixi (see here), that's not at all true of this upcoming model.

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dunkaroo · 11-02-2009, 02:38 AM

I had more features in my ancient Palm TX than this thing. The people defending Palm for putting out such a toy need to sell their shares right away. Just because a product (Pixi) doesn't have wifi or external storage (like the Palm TX) doesn't mean that it was developed for a teen socializing market. No.

Bottom line. The real story is this. By Palm not releasing the Pixi with wifi, it forces people to sign up for a costly data plan. The presumption is that in later versions of the Pixi, they will revert back to standard tiny incremental updates adding external storage and other very basic stuff. True Palm management. This is how they've operated for years. They had their 15 seconds of fame with the release of the slick UI, but innovation and the ability to listen to their customers is sorely lacking compared to Apple and Google management.

Matt J · 11-02-2009, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunkaroo

I had more features in my ancient Palm TX than this thing. The people defending Palm for putting out such a toy need to sell their shares right away. Just because a product (Pixi) doesn't have wifi or external storage (like the Palm TX) doesn't mean that it was developed for a teen socializing market. No.

Bottom line. The real story is this. By Palm not releasing the Pixi with wifi, it forces people to sign up for a costly data plan. The presumption is that in later versions of the Pixi, they will revert back to standard tiny incremental updates adding external storage and other very basic stuff. True Palm management. This is how they've operated for years. They had their 15 seconds of fame with the release of the slick UI, but innovation and the ability to listen to their customers is sorely lacking compared to Apple and Google management.

Well, the market is reacting and Palm's share price is dropping quick. Regardless of the financial side, I do agree that Palm made a terrible mistake not including the most basic technology in new products. The crazy thing is that the Pre and Pixi are already lagging the competition.

Ed Hardy · 11-02-2009, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunkaroo

The real story is this. By Palm not releasing the Pixi with wifi, it forces people to sign up for a costly data plan.

The U.S. carriers have become more overt than this: they simply require people to sign up for unlimited data plans to buy smartphones, whether those devices have Wi-Fi or not. AT&T pioneered this with the iPhone, and it was so successful that the other carriers have followed suit. The pre has Wi-Fi, but to buy it you have to have an unlimited data plan.

With that in mind, Wi-Fi has become mostly superfluous. Yes, under the right conditions Wi-Fi is faster, but on my 3G devices I find myself hardly ever using it. 3G is actually quite fast, fast enough for me to watch streaming video and other high-bandwidth tasks.

But that's one person's opinion. If you insist you want Wi-Fi, what are you going to use it for that 3G can't provide?

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Varjak · 11-02-2009, 05:29 PM

Ed, I'm moving to your side (that WiFi is becoming superfluous); but there ARE still a few times it makes sense (mostly for things like Skype or SlingPlayer that carriers specifically block on their 3G networks).

questionfear · 11-02-2009, 05:43 PM

Also, and this may just be me, I'd rather be able to choose wifi in a bad 3g area rather than have a paperweight...if you are commiting to a phone for 2 years why cut yourself off from an option that is easily attainable for not much more over the life of the contract?

dunkaroo · 11-02-2009, 08:16 PM

There are tons of times when getting cellular access is not possible. For example, cellular service in my own house is terrible. I can't wait for my plan to be over so I can switch carriers. Wifi works in my own house. Also, any time I go downtown inside a large building I consistently getting crappy reception. And I know that my workplace has wifi. It is just basic. And should be included in this day and age.

Plus, wifi is making big gains in speed. The new version N routers have huge performance gains over the old 802.11b/g routers. This means that wifi video streaming is going to be over 10x faster than the best cellular service including 3g. And these new routers have already been available at Best Buy and other stores for over the last year!

No more excuses Palm. Just roll over and die already. Seriously. I was a diehard supporter and my last Palm device was a Palm TX. Even that thing had wifi and external storage. Rubin in management at Palm had his moment with that UI. They've done nothing since.

Matt J · 11-03-2009, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ed Hardy

With that in mind, Wi-Fi has become mostly superfluous. Yes, under the right conditions Wi-Fi is faster, but on my 3G devices I find myself hardly ever using it. 3G is actually quite fast, fast enough for me to watch streaming video and other high-bandwidth tasks.

I couldn't disagree more. Many people have wireless Wi-Fi routers in their home that allow them excellent internet connectivity where 3G signal might not be the best. This also applies for me at the college where I teach... 3G is OK, but Wi-Fi is always excellent for data.

Most people spend most of their time at home and at work where they likely have solid Wi-Fi connectivity.

lostboykev · 11-03-2009, 06:56 PM

see the ad with "wifi capable"?

Drillbit · 11-03-2009, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dunkaroo

I had more features in my ancient Palm TX than this thing. The people defending Palm for putting out such a toy need to sell their shares right away. Just because a product (Pixi) doesn't have wifi or external storage (like the Palm TX) doesn't mean that it was developed for a teen socializing market. No.

Bottom line. The real story is this. By Palm not releasing the Pixi with wifi, it forces people to sign up for a costly data plan. The presumption is that in later versions of the Pixi, they will revert back to standard tiny incremental updates adding external storage and other very basic stuff. True Palm management. This is how they've operated for years. They had their 15 seconds of fame with the release of the slick UI, but innovation and the ability to listen to their customers is sorely lacking compared to Apple and Google management.

What's really wrong with a required data plan?

In Japan, its required in all carriers. They invented that concept after all and it worked very well.

Sidekick required it.

All Blackberry requires it. Whether or not the BB has Wifi, the data plan is required.

All iPhones requires it, although you can run an iPhone without a data plan.

Android requires it also. In fact, unlimited plans are recommended. Android phones on contract are often sold with required unlimited plans.

A consideration why Spotify made their app first for Android and iPhone, not Symbian and Windows Mobile is that they could count on the fact that there is more Android and iPhone users on a data plan.

App developers are not looking for how big the market share of a smartphone platform is, but rather, how much of that smartphone users are in a data plan. That data plan is essential for their ecosystem.

Sprint appears on a direction that requires their phones to be WiFi capable in the next year or so, so I think that will remedy on a Pixi. Even then, even with Wifi phones, data plans are required.

Oh Matt, the market is not reacting because Palm forgot something catering to old Garnet users. The market is reacting because they think Android might bury Palm in the process.