Hi John,
You probably have an iPhone. So do I. We both love our iPhones, I am sure. I actually often wake up at 3 and 6 am to make through-the-night email checks from bed. My iPhone is the center of my communication life away from my desk. We are all techies here, we understand. But John (Mr. Biggs? Biggie Smalls, whatever you want), your Pre piece is wack. Not a hack-job, but a wack-j0b. (note that this is “wack” not “whack”) Really, let’s talk about your “points” against the Pre:
- “The Plam Pre is overhyped, thus it will fail.” Man this is a gem, can we talk about what company has the most god-damn overhyped products on this planet? Turn your 3g iPhone over and take a peek at the logo. Remember when the iPhone launched, and you came a few times? Yeah, the iPhone when it launched was a buggy, locked down pain in the ass, with no 3g, and no 3rd party applications. Do you know what you would have said if it had not been from Apple? Probably something comparable to what you are saying right now about the Pre, only this time you are attacking a superior product. And the keyboard? Have you ever typed on your iPhone? It is nothing short of a pain in the ass. Tell me this, how many full length blog posts have you written from your iPhone? Same number here John. It is just too slow, and painful. So the Pre’s “plasticky” keyboard is hardly a condemnation compared to the iPhone’s “shitty” keyboard.
- When it comes to your second paragraph, I have no idea what you are talking about, really. Surely there are few parallels between the G1 and the Pre: new OS, new platform, from a big corporation, etc. But then you wander over and complain about its price? I think that with a two year contract it is in the same range as the G1 and the iPhone. So, are you trying to say that all three of these phones are too expensive? That might be true, but it says little against the Pre. Then you make some wild assertions about how the Pre is going to launch like a “wonky LG,” which is comical. I mean, have you read anything about the Pre? If you have, you will know the idiocy of that statement.
- I agree that Sprint is a shite carrier. I doubt that anyone will fight you there. However, your point about how merely because a few hundred people cannot unlock the phone and use it overseas is ridiculous. This is a mass market smartphone, looking to sell millions of units. Whether or not some other nations tech-lovers get to doodle with it for a few months before hand does nothing to change its trajectory: if it is a good phone, they will still want it, if not, they will never have wanted it.
I would love to make a bet on this, but I cannot think of a way to draw any metrics. Let’s just say, that if the Pre is deemed a failure by the vast majority of the tech and mainstream press, the next time that I am in Ohio, lunch is on me. But just don’t think that I am selling my iPhone quite yet.
