I’m not going to lie, I’m still fairly skeptical about the Palm Pre. it’s not that I don’t want it to be a success – I just wonder how anyone can stand up and say how a device is going to be a game changer when at most, they’ve played around with a prototype for twenty minutes. I’m also cautious because we’ve been here before. Anyone remember the Blackberry Storm? Everyone thought that was going to blow the iPhone out of the water; for those not aware, it certainly didn’t.

Over the past few months since CES, when Palm announced the Pre, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the direction that Palm are taking the Pre and I can’t really understand the choices that they’ve made. In some leaked internal material, they implore salesmen not to persuade certain “IT Centric Business Users”  – whatever that means – to buy the device.

I have a few problems with this. Surely, Palm, a company that isn’t doing so well right now should be putting all their energy into a phone that really, if it lives up to the hype; should be able to do ‘everything’ a Treo can do. This suggests to me a very confused product line, and makes me doubt who exactly Palm are marketing the Pre for. After all, surely if this device is so damn easy to use, the Pre should be for everyone. By doing so, like Apple, Palm wouldn’t be alienating a large possible portion of what could be a lucrative market – everyone. Apple is not afraid to say that the iPhone is for everyone. Look at the name of their ad campaign “There’s an app for just about anything”.

There’s one aspect about the whole business focus that Palm is working on that I’m slightly miffed about which Engadget pointed out:

One critical thing to note for business users and frequent flyers: the Sprint version of the phone — the first to be released — will not be a global phone, meaning it can’t be used on GSM networks overseas.

Let me get this straight. You want me to purchase a phone for business that I can’t use in most parts of the world? In other words, you want me to have two phones. One for when I’m at home and one for when I travel abroad. Forgoing to whole logistics issues of having multiple numbers and syncing everything together there’s a very large financial aspect for business to worry about. Seriously now, wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to buy one cell phone that happens to cost the price of the Palm Pre (after rebate, I’ll get onto that later) and works in other countries?

I hate pointing out the elephant in the room but… iPhone?

John Gruber put it best: “rebates suck”. They really do. The whole idea is that it’s such a terrible procedure to go and get the money back from the manufacturer – that most people give up and the company doesn’t loose any money. A sucky way to do business if you ask me. There is a silver lining however, Best Buy, are offering an instant rebate. I would be very, very surprised if Pre’s were purchased anywhere else but Best Buy.

I was really, really surprised when I found out that Palm weren’t going to be offering any form of desktop syncing application for the Pre – and slightly worried. Anyone who knows a little about the success of the iPods and iPhone is aware that, really, it’s iTunes that’s behind it. iTunes is the piece of software that allows the experience to be so damn seamless. I am not of the opinion that we are at a point where one can rely on their cell phone completely for contact information, let alone media.

By the sound of things, Palm’s intent on having a “Data Transfer Assistant” which for me suggests a world of hurt. For instance: I want to watch a movie on my Pre. How do I go about doing this? I can’t use iTunes or any other downloadable content store because of this little thing called DRM. So movies are out to the picture. Next up, music – a lot easier now that DRM for audio is a thing of the past. But first I have to navigate through my entire music file structure, copy it over to the “Data Transfer Assistant” and pray that the Pre works out where is should be stored?

Yeah, not quite my cup of tea.

Don’t worry, it’s not all bad however, there are a couple of items on the feature set that have caught my eye. If Synergy works, it will be revolutionary. If it doesn’t, then in turn the rest of the experience with the Pre will be a nightmare. I’m also very curious about the WebOS that Palm are pushing – kind of similar to how Apple intended the iPhone to operate. Of course, it didn’t and for now at least, we won’t be running any 3D Games on the Pre.

In the end, no matter how well the Pre does, Palm will have learnt a lot about the current state of the mobile industry, and being an iPhone user, I’m glad someone is keeping Apple on their toes. Because, RIM and HTC certainly aren’t.

Your move, Apple.

How many companies’ adverts do you actually go looking for to watch again after you first see it on TV? I can think of two. Firstly Microsoft’s, because to get any idea what they were actually talking about you had to watch them several times, and secondly – Apple’s.

Why? Because they actually show you what the product can do in less than thirty seconds. They don’t just give you a reason to buy the product, they give you several good reasons. Especially the iPhone ads.

In the UK we’ve got an ad very similar to this one. What does that ad tell you about Blackberry? Pretty much nothing apart from the fact that they make phones and they’ve got a really crappy marketing department.

While, this ad on the other hand, has a rather different story. Apple’s ads give you instances that might actually happen while you’ve got your iPhone on you. The total opposite direction to RIM, who are to afraid that when you start looking at the low-res pixelated screen and hard to use navigation buttons – you’ve going to be turned off the product.

And they’re right to be scared. Every Blackberry I’ve come across has had a sucky interface.

In the case of Apple’s advertising efforts: they’re talking about getting a cab, working out your share of the dinner bill and one of the coolest apps I’ve seen so far – the leveler! Sure, you might not use them everyday, but they’re the sort of apps that one might find handy every so often and make a great demo.

Apple are trying really hard to sell their product, and that shows through very clearly. RIM however, have a harder job. Everyone has heard of the iPhone, but it’s a different story with Blackberry; so they have to introduce the product and show of its features in the same amount of time. In the case of this ad, they manage to do neither.

RIM wants to be seen as innovative and cool. Why does it matter though? Surely, if it looks cool people will want to buy it? After all, there is no doubt that they used some pretty spiffy stuff to make the ad.

Apple manages to get away with not using lots of fancy effects because everyone knows that the iPhone is cool, that everything Apple makes is cool. If you own an iPhone – you’re cool. The Blackberry on the other hand… lets face it, isn’t very cool. At all. RIM are trying to turn around the Blackberry brand. They’ve worked out that if they’re going to survive in the current financial climate – they need to branch out into the consumer market.

The latest advertising effort by RIM is to show the world that they do more than business, after all; I didn’t see one image of corporate life in that ad. The problem is, they haven’t gone about it in the right way. They should be telling me what I can do, as a teenager everyday, with a Blackberry.

Sorry RIM, but you’ve got quite a bit further in your advertising efforts to go if you want me to trade my iPhone in for a Storm.