5 ms·

I think you underestimate the importance of his items 1 and 2 (call quality and email/SMS) to the business population. A dropped call at the wrong moment can c

by davi 18y ago

I think you underestimate the importance of his items 1 and 2 (call quality and email/SMS) to the business population. A dropped call at the wrong moment can cost a sales guy a lot of money; and a hard-core Blackberry user is not going to give up that keypad for a nice browser. For them, the importance of reliable, rapid communication with business contacts outweighs the pleasure of a good browsing experience. With the Palm, you theoretically will get to have a keypad, a choice of carriers, and a nice browser (assuming the fact that it uses the same HTML rendering engine as the iPhone means the browsing experience will be equally good). Hence his assertion that "Apple’s strategy has worked well, but it has major holes, and this Palm unit looks like it exploits them".

axod 18y ago
Surely then if you're looking at the corporate user, the Palm is a "Blackberry killer" rather than an "iPhone killer"?
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Yes. iPhone isn't a serious contender in business. It may be a threat to the iPhone in the pro-sumer market (yeah, I hate that term too) also though, since it too has a full-screen WebKit based browser, a UI people are raving about, $200 price point, and potentially (jury's still out) awesome platform. And, most crucially, it will be on many networks. I like it's chances.
tptacek 18y ago
So, (1) a dropped call at the wrong moment is not going to cost a sales guy a lot of money unless that sales guy works in Scranton and is trying out for the CIA, and (2) am I the only one here who uses an iPhone as their primary phone and has never had a dropped call?
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  There was a tremendous amount of negative publicity around dropped calls specifically when the 3g launched. I'm sure you're not the only one, but it's clearly a common problem, just as some people still have an Xbox 360 from launch day that works, while I'm on my third. Call quality goes beyond just that too. There's the abysmal maximum volume. General sound. Etc.
- eb 18y ago
  I've never had a dropped call with my iPhone either. The only person complaining about call quality in this thread is Matt. It's a bit disingenuous to make declarations about how poor a product is when you don't even own one. It seems to be a common theme when he writes about Apple.
swombat 18y ago
The funny thing about the Apple iPhone keyboard, in that respect, is it actually does work just as well as a blackberry keyboard (and this is within the first week of usage...). I find that I can type just as fast on my iphone as I could on my blackberry.. In fact, I'm typing this on my iPhone, as it happens. The iphone keyboard is a fantastic piece of design. I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days. I actually think of the on-screen keyboard as one of the iPhone's key features, and the lack of it would discourage me from buying another phone.
- mattmcknight 18y ago
  "I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days." I just don't believe it. I've had an ipod touch for nearly a year and it's just not there. I am twice as fast on the blackberry keyboard. What's your wpm on iPhone? Do you think it would be faster typing with a standard computer keyboard or a touchscreen keyboard on a tablet? If you type really slowly, they might be roughly equivalent. If you are fast on the blackberry, there's no way.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - jmtulloss 18y ago
    I am all for physical keyboards, but comparing it to a full size touch keyboard isn't exactly fair. There's about 5x more stuff going on with a full size keyboard.
  - jemmons 18y ago
    Ever known someone with a FingerWorks TouchStream? I think you might be surprised exactly how productive one can be with a "touchscreen keyboard on a tablet".

by davi 18y ago

axod 18y ago

Surely then if you're looking at the corporate user, the Palm is a "Blackberry killer" rather than an "iPhone killer"?

mattmaroon 18y ago
Yes. iPhone isn't a serious contender in business. It may be a threat to the iPhone in the pro-sumer market (yeah, I hate that term too) also though, since it too has a full-screen WebKit based browser, a UI people are raving about, $200 price point, and potentially (jury's still out) awesome platform. And, most crucially, it will be on many networks. I like it's chances.

tptacek 18y ago

So, (1) a dropped call at the wrong moment is not going to cost a sales guy a lot of money unless that sales guy works in Scranton and is trying out for the CIA, and (2) am I the only one here who uses an iPhone as their primary phone and has never had a dropped call?

mattmaroon 18y ago
There was a tremendous amount of negative publicity around dropped calls specifically when the 3g launched. I'm sure you're not the only one, but it's clearly a common problem, just as some people still have an Xbox 360 from launch day that works, while I'm on my third. Call quality goes beyond just that too. There's the abysmal maximum volume. General sound. Etc.
eb 18y ago
I've never had a dropped call with my iPhone either. The only person complaining about call quality in this thread is Matt. It's a bit disingenuous to make declarations about how poor a product is when you don't even own one. It seems to be a common theme when he writes about Apple.

swombat 18y ago

The funny thing about the Apple iPhone keyboard, in that respect, is it actually does work just as well as a blackberry keyboard (and this is within the first week of usage...). I find that I can type just as fast on my iphone as I could on my blackberry.. In fact, I'm typing this on my iPhone, as it happens. The iphone keyboard is a fantastic piece of design. I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days. I actually think of the on-screen keyboard as one of the iPhone's key features, and the lack of it would discourage me from buying another phone.

mattmcknight 18y ago
"I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days." I just don't believe it. I've had an ipod touch for nearly a year and it's just not there. I am twice as fast on the blackberry keyboard. What's your wpm on iPhone? Do you think it would be faster typing with a standard computer keyboard or a touchscreen keyboard on a tablet? If you type really slowly, they might be roughly equivalent. If you are fast on the blackberry, there's no way.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- jmtulloss 18y ago
  I am all for physical keyboards, but comparing it to a full size touch keyboard isn't exactly fair. There's about 5x more stuff going on with a full size keyboard.
- jemmons 18y ago
  Ever known someone with a FingerWorks TouchStream? I think you might be surprised exactly how productive one can be with a "touchscreen keyboard on a tablet".