EON

There can be absolutely no doubt that the Palm Pre was created as a direct competitor with Apple’s ever-popular Iphone. The Pre, carried by Sprint Nextel in the United States, is a new phone in the category called smartphones, which is currently dominated by the Iphone, closely followed by RIM’s popular line of Blackberries. The Pre, which debuted at the Computer Electronics Show of 2009, has a number of features that closely imitate those of the Iphone. In fact, some of the features are so close that Apple has suggested that they will “not stand to have their IP (intellectual property) ripped off” (paraphrased).

It is pretty clear which features imitate those of the Iphone. For example, the most obvious is the multitouch interface, one of the features that makes the Pre so exciting. Many of these touch gestures are extremely similar to the iphone, but none can be said to be a blatant copy as of yet. The Pre can also synchronize with Itunes and is expected to soon have an App store that is very similar to the one for the Iphone. This is among other very similar features.

Otherwise, it is clear that the Pre is aimed at an identical audience. It is at a very similar price point, with similar features. The only part of the Pre that makes it stand apart is that it may incorporate some features to attract a business audience, especially that of the full qwerty keyboard, rather than one on the touch screen. Otherwise, it has a similar web-based OS and one that is very friendly to multitaskers. One feature that suggests that it is aimed at mass market, rather than only business users, is that there have been many hints that games will be developed. The Pre, similar to the Iphone, incorporates an accelerometer that could make for excellent games, similar to those for which the Iphone is so popular.