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] went on the offensive today, introducing its long-delayed, new mobile operating system as well as a new smart phone to run it. The company's new operating system, called WebOS, is the first new operating system software from the mobile pioneer since 2002. The new software has been plagued by glitches and snafus for years, so getting the product ready for market has been a long time in coming, depressing Palm shares, and keeping the company from effectively competing against its rivals Apple Inc. [AAPL
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] and Research in Motion[RIMM
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].
CEO Ed Colligan told me in an interview after the announcement that this phone, and the new OS, will clearly be a game changer. And analysts I spoke to agreed.
The new 3G smart phone, dubbed the Palm Pre (pronounced "pree") came as a surprise since most analysts were convinced engineers at the company were pre-occupied with getting the software out the door. The Pre is a super-slick smart phone that looks suspiciously like the iPhone, which makes sense since Palm's executive chairman, Jon Rubinstein, was iPod and iPhone's pioneer.
But Pre comes with a key twist: a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that addresses some of touchscreen phones' biggest criticisms: the screens might be pretty, but they're hard to type on.
Palm also addresses another key knock on Apple's iPhone by offering a removable battery.
This is an impressive device. The 4.8 ounce device features a 3.1 inch screen, EvDO, 8 gigs of storage, Wi-Fi, a 3 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth.
The company launched into an in-depth demonstration of the new operating system, what appears to be a nicely intuitive interface.
Palm also unveiled a nifty gadget called Touchstone, a Bluetooth and wireless charging device that looks like a hockey puck, but half the size. Slick.
Pre will be available exclusively on Sprint [S
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] . CEO Dan Hesse joined Colligan on stage, and said the Pre would be an "iconic and in-demand device."
Sprint is only taking pre-registrations. It'll be available some time in the first half of 2009. No pricing was disclosed.
Palm has desperately tried to reclaim its leadership status in all things mobile that it established with the original Palm Pilot, but would ultimately cede to its far better capitalized competitors. The company's stock has been in free-fall because of those software delays, and delays in getting key handsets cleared and ready for market by wireless carriers, including AT&T[T
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], Verizon [VZ
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] and Sprint.
Company CEO Ed Colligan has long claimed that the fast-growing smart phone market is more than robust enough to support several success stories. Analysts have argued that Palm has been unable to take advantage of that growth because of ongoing, internal execution issues.
The company is pinning its hopes on mobile web access, hence the WebOS moniker. An elegant browser seems to give you a better web experience than what you might get on your desktop, including multiple websites opened simultaneously.
Palm's Colligan told me this phone and this new OS will be the cornerstone for all Palm development and innvovation for the next decade.
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