I never had a smart phone until August of 2008. After much debate, I settled on the Blackberry Curve 8320. A few months ago I upgraded to the T-Mobile Blackbery Curve 8900 (aka Javelin) and have fallen even more in love with Blackberry. When I heard of the new Palm Pre I was pretty unimpressed. When Rimarkable posted a story about how the Palm’s new plan backfired I was even more dismissive of the new Palm. But then I spoke a friend that put things into perspective. When he told me it could be more popular than the iPhone, I had to see for myself. I had no idea how much of a game changer the Palm Pre would be so I became curious. Particularly since I have an offshore software development firm (not a software sweatshop) that’s doing a lot of mobile application development.

This post, as it says in the title, is a series of reviews about the Palm Pre, and a prediction of Palm’s upcoming resurgence in the smart phone arena. If these Palm reviews helped an avid Blackberry fan take a second look at Palm… they might do the same for you:

  • Gizmodo calls the Palm Pre review said it’s the most important handset to be announced in two years. They called it “simply amazing”
  • Check out the CNET Palm Pre review review video at CES 2009. It won the CNET “Best of CES” award. Here’s their first impressions of the Palm Pre
  • Then there’s this review on the 6 reasons the Palm Pre is an iPhone killer. This video is HOT!!!
  • PCMag gives us some hard specs on the Palm Pre. Lance Ulanoff of PCMAG.com said “The Palm Pre is the technology product I’ve been waiting for. Like every tech journalist I know, I knew what was coming, but today’s demo literally blew away my expectations. Step aside, iPhone, sit down, Bold”
  • Engadget tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the Palm Pre They call the UI “absurdly slick” and the scrolling superior to the iPhone. Watch the video and see for yourself.

To be fair, there are some not-so-positive Palm reviews. Specifically the lack of expandable memory. Some skeptics don’t think it has anything that can’t be duplicated or will woo users away from established competitors like Apple and RIM. Despite the skepticism, the private equity firm Elevation Partners has made a hefty $100 million investment in Palm. If you read the article, you’ll see that the risk seems to be paying off.

Who knows what will happen with the new Palm, but it sure is making waves.

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