The Poor Man’s iPhone?
With the latest price drop the Palm Pre is no longer the same price as the iPhone 3G. In fact, if you go to a Sprint store you’ll have to shell out $300 before a $100 mail in rebate for the phone. Apple will part with an iPhone 3G for just $99 now.
The problem is that the initial cost doesn’t matter, it’s deceptive. The iPhone 3G will cost you much longer in the long run.
Hardly the most generous wireless carrier, AT&T’s cost structure is as follows:
| AT&T iPhone 3G Plans with Unlimited Data | 450 Minutes | 900 Minutes | 1350 Minutes | Unlimited Minutes |
| Monthly Cost | $69.99 | $89.99 | $109.99 | $129.99 |
| Monthly Cost with 200 Text Messages | $74.99 | $94.99 | $114.99 | $134.99 |
| Monthly Cost with Unlimited Text Messages | $89.99 | $109.99 | $129.99 | $149.99 |
A voice plan will cost you anywhere from $40 - $100 per month. The iPhone data plan is another $30 per month on top of that (required for the iPhone). If you want any sort of text messaging bundle that’s another $5 per month, or $20 per month for unlimited messaging. If you want unlimited everything that’s $149.99 per month from AT&T or $3600 over the course of your 24 month contract. Note that AT&T hasn’t announced pricing for tethering on the iPhone 3GS. I can’t wait to see what that’ll be like.
Sprint, admittedly not as popular of a carrier as AT&T, does a lot better.
Sprint’s data plan is unlimited...everything. You get unlimited data transfers (no tethering support), unlimited SMS and unlimited MMS. It’s included with every Palm Pre plan.
| Sprint Palm Pre Plans with Unlimited Data | 450 Minutes | 900 Minutes | Unlimited Minutes |
| Monthly Cost with Unlimited Text Messages | $69.99 | $89.99 | $99.99 |
The only thing you have to choose is how many minutes you want. The 450 minute plan will set you back $70 per month, the 900 minute plan costs $90 and unlimited voice is $100. That’s $49 less per month than the equivalent bundle from AT&T, a savings of around $1200 over the course of two years.
Granted AT&T allows your unused minutes to rollover month to month, but Sprint lets your free nights and weekends start at 7PM instead of 9PM. Even taking that into account, there’s no getting around the fact that for a full featured account - Sprint is a lot cheaper.
If you don’t text a lot however, much of Sprint’s advantage disappears. I would hope that Sprint’s plans could pressure AT&T to include SMS/MMS in the unlimited data package (a SMS is data, isn’t it?), but until then if you want a more affordable monthly plan the Pre is the way to go. And no, Sprint’s SERO plans won’t work on the Pre.
Built in Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Another aspect of the Pre’s tremendous cost advantage is its free, out of the box, turn by turn navigation. The Pre has a GPS just like the iPhone 3G/3GS, but it also has a Sprint Navigation app that can be used as an in-car navigation device.
The nav works well and unfortunately, to get something similar from Apple you need to buy the currently unavailable Tom Tom app. There’s no word on pricing as of yet.
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Griswold - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Multitasking has been done by many smartphones before the Pre or iPhone, but no one has done it as smooth and as Apple-like as Palm."We're in the 3rd generation of iphones now and they still cant multitask. If palm does it perfectly, calling it "apple-like" is certainly inappropriate. Palms Pre is now the yardstick for multitasking on the mobile sector. Credit where credit is due, please.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I meant it in a flattering way. That sort of praise is normally reserved for Apple; bestowing it upon Palm, not traditionally a recipient of such praise was intended to be an honor :-PTake care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
"Shame on Nokia, Motorola and the established cell phone industry for failing to do what it took Palm two years to do."Ok, so this point is made followed by compliments for multitasking and the cloud syncing however Nokia have had a similar multitasking system implemented in S60 for years (hold the app button to get a list of all apps and change to them as you want). Background apps can have their own data connections without interfering with each other and if you do push them too far the phone will warn you it's running low on memory. I find it strange that the lack of multitasking which is really a requisite for a smartphone has been so overlooked with the Iphone. Nokia's Ovi product lets you sync your system remotely or you can hook your contacts directly into the likes of Facebook with the latest version of S60.
While Nokia lack the flash of other companies however Apple still cannot match the featureset of the S60 phones that were out before the Iphone 2G and I find their core features to be extremely strong particularly signal reception - the 5800 can hold onto a signal where no other phone can which makes it considerably more useful given it is a phone after all.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
While Nokia has done a great job adding features to its phones over the years, on the UI side the innovation just hasn't been there. Both Apple and Palm deliver far more usable, simple and smooth UIs on their smart phones than I've seen from anyone else.If your cellphone UI has never bothered you then Nokia more than delivers capable handsets, however I believe (and I feel that a significant portion of the high end smartphone market agrees) that it's only been since the iPhone that we've seen real attention paid towards improving UI and user experience on these phones. Palm does a wonderful job of carrying the torch for the next leg imho.
Take care,
Anand
Connoisseur - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I totally agree. Everyone keeps harping on this article regarding the "features" and how they've been available for a long time in other phones. The feature-set aside, these phones just offer a level of smoothness and ease of use in the UI that 90% of the population is wowed about. Sure my old Treo offered a lot of functionality but it took an Apple to take the key components and make it such a pleasure to use.jmaine - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Please define "genuine smartphone". Enlighten us to what the iPhone cannot do (and do well) that a Nokia smartphone would be a better choice for the masses? I switched to an iPhone after years of using Nokia, Motorola, Sony, Samsung and Blackberry phones. I even have a Treo 750 from work right now and I absolute hate it and all the former phones I've used and constantly switched between.TheProf, Connoisseur and Anand hit the nail on the head. It's the interface and usability, not the features that make a smart phone a commercial success. You can have a 12 megapixel phone with an OLED display, but with horrible software, support and application support. It will fail despite the strength of its hardware.
I've been reading a lot about the Palm Pre's problems since launch - overheating, poor battery life, and software crashes. Don't forget that a smart phone's function is to be a phone first, and everything else after. If you can't use its features without affecting it's essential functionality as a phone, it's a failure.
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I don't see the point in having a fancy UI if there's nothing underneath it, I expect a lot of functionality from a smartphone (otherwise I would use a normal phone) and Apple still seems to be far behind where Nokia were years before. If you want a fashion phone then yes, a fancy UI is definitely a desirable feature.Also, I still fail to see why you 'shame' Nokia then praise Palm for a system which Nokia have had for many years.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
I believe that the iPhone and Pre do offer much more than a fancy UI, I believe they offer a good balance of features and good interface. Not holding phone makers to a high standard when it comes to UI is how we ended up in this mess in the first place, I don't believe now is the time to go back to our old ways.I'm not shaming Nokia for its multitasking support, I'm shaming Nokia for not producing a comparable Pre-like or iPhone-like UI in the years since the original iPhone's release. In my mind it should have been Nokia and Motorola who built the first iPhone, they had the experience; for Apple to come in and build such a successful smartphone indicates that there's something wrong with the way the established makers approach phone designs.
Take care,
Anand
Johnmcl7 - Friday, June 19, 2009 - link
That's because Nokia make genuine smartphones, not devices pretending to be smartphones just because they have a fancier interface - on the initial Iphone release it was missing features even standard phones had (such as proper bluetooth support). I honestly don't know how a phone as basic as the Iphone gets such a free ride on what is supposed to be a tech site - it's very slowly getting there but to me a device without multitasking cannot be considered a smartphone as that severely limits the device.Even on media features Nokia had Apple beaten hands down and still do in some areas, I'm waiting for the next release in the drip feed series of Iphones which will have a decent camera as at the moment they seem to be around three years behind on that front.
Overall I just much prefer Nokia's approach to a mobile phone - pack as many features into a phone to make it a powerful device rather than Apple's approach of putting at little as possible to force people to upgrade constantly. I guess I'll never understand how tech sites can get so wowed by an interface they can completely overlook the lack of any substance underneath it.
Samus - Saturday, June 20, 2009 - link
Yea... Nokia's smartphones are 'true' smartphones. Thats why Blackberry and Apple outsell Nokia smartphones like 50:1.Nokia makes sturdy dependable phones, but their IU has the elegence of a VW Golf dashboard. Boring. Boring. Boring.