William Hurley has just published a grim view of Palm's upcoming Pre. He lays out quite a few reasons why the Pre will be a disappointment. He starts with the stiff competition posed by Apple, RIM, Nokia etc. Can Palm really take on these big boys who have such a big lead in smartphone adoption? Then there's pricing, and their partner carrier Sprint who has lost millions of users in recent months due to customer service and network issues.
Another big problem that Hurley cites is the lack of software for the WebOS platform.
"Remember that Palm's developer network has been largely dormant for three to four years; not immediately embracing its reinvigorated efforts is shortsighted and will prove costly."
Only time will tell if Palm can pull this off. In our view, the Pre is simply too small and users will want a much larger display, but if the WebOS proves popular other devices will come along that support it.
Keep in mind that Hurley's grim viewpoint should be taken with a grain of salt. According to Tech Trader Daily, he's an open source guru who apparently got into a spat with Palm over the company's willingness to be involved with an event that Hurley was involved in.
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