Operating Systems - Other

As cool as I thought the iPhone was, I never had a problem getting obsessed over it. You see, I live in a rural area, and ATT's network just wasn't going to cut it for me. Easy not to get overexcited about something that wouldn't work for you.

Fast forward a couple years and Android devices are popping up like mushrooms. Droid is what opened my eyes, and when I saw the Nexus One I thought I had found my phone. Then, practically by accident, I got my hands on Palm's webOS and it was all over for Android. When I say practically by accident, I mean that I was aware Palm had new devices, but I didn't really care and they weren't on my radar. Until I tried webOS. Then I could never be happy with anything else. Damn you Palm.

You see, as much as Android is kind of "iPhone for the rest of us", webOS just takes it all to another level entirely. It's smart. It's logical. It's well designed. It looks good. It can handle just about anything you can ask from it without crumbling. It has the greatest contacts and notifications implementations of any device made by man. It just works.

So what is the point of me writing this today? Just to proclaim my love for Palm's webOS? A little review maybe? An advocacy piece?

No.

No, today I am writing a letter to Palm. Palm, who is back from the dead with a fantastic new operating system, and two devices that use it that aren't really selling. 

Dear Palm, 

I don't have a history with you. I didn't use your PDAs, and I never had a Palm phone before my Pre Plus. I love my Pre Plus, but more for webOS than the hardware. I am a power user, and I am making a bit of a concession to use the Pre Plus, which is perhaps not the sexiest phone one could hope for, because I think that webOS is insanely better than anything else out there. My wife has no such compunctions, she flat out loves everything about her Pixi Plus. I have to admit that the keyboard is just stupendous on her Pixi. It is a great little phone.

You have us. We are both sold on webOS. I like good design, which is why I used NeXT's OPENSTEP from 1996 to 2002, when I bought my first Mac and switched to OS X. Like NeXT's operating system, I think that Palm's webOS is light years ahead of anything else on the market. However, my wife and I are not a success story for the rebirth of the Palm brand. I was not talked into Palm at the Verizon retail store. Frankly, I don't know if they would have even mentioned your product. We knew what we wanted, went right to it, and instructed the retail drone how we wanted to proceed. We didn't really give them the opportunity to divert us to something else.

What I hear on the web forums is a different story, and at least at Verizon stores it sounds like the retail drones are steering people away from Palm and onto Android. You need to work with your partners to make sure that Palm products are fairly presented to the consumer, or just put the barrel of the gun in your mouth right now. 

More importantly, you need a new flagship device. You need something that people see as either better than or equal to iPhone, Droid and Nexus One. You need a big screen, but not too big. The new HTC HD2 sounds great at 4.3", then you see it, and it's too much for a phone. I think that 3.7" turns out to be the PERFECT physical size for a phone display. Make it 800x480 or 854x480. Keep the physical keyboard. Even a small, real keyboard beats a virtual keyboard, no matter how good the virtual keyboard is. Keep the form factor svelte and sexy. Google almost hit a home run with the Nexus One. It qualifies as sexy, would be almost perfect minus the trackball. (Note: we do NOT need a trackball or trackpad on a phone that has a capacitive touch screen, capiche?) OLED or at least LED backlit would be nice, especially if this meant that battery life would benefit.

Use a fast CPU. A Snapdragon would be nice, but better yet, throw the world a curve ball and use a dual core CPU of some kind. This phone needs to be a Ferrari, a status phone that people want to get their hands on. In the process, you will make a lot of webOS converts. 

You also need to throw more money at internal developers. You need more in the way of first party webOS apps. This will raise the bar for the third party developers and force them to step up their game. The user benefits all the way around with more and better webOS apps. More apps, more apps, more apps. ps., pay versions of public domain books don't count. Jesus, if I see another $1.99 ebook on the app catalog I'm gonna....

The press for Palm has been a lot of doom and gloom lately. I don't have money invested in you, but I love my phone. I really want my next phone to have webOS on it, to the point that I would only buy a Palm phone as long as you are around. That's how in love you have made me fall over webOS. Now you owe it to me to prosper so that I don't have to end up buying something else when my contract is up.

Please Palm, I don't want to switch to Android. Get your act together and keep making insanely great products.