Coming this Summer: "Will the real Jesus Phone please stand up"

Announcing this summer's hottest release - "Will the real Jesus phone please stand up" - a combined production of Apple Studios & Palm Pictures.

Oh yes, this is better than any movie you'd seen.

Last year, Apple storm-ed (no pun intended) through the smartphone market, thanks to the release of the 3G iPhone and the App Store. But just when it all seemed like Apple had obliterated the competition with a swish of it's wand arose a worthy competitor, one that was written off by many - Palm. With it's new Palm Pre device, which boasts revolutionary features like seamless backgrounding and complete integration of the user interface, Palm is attempting one last like-a-Pheonix-from-the-ashes attempt to duel the mighty Apple and reclaim it's long lost throne as the King of Smartphones. At the same time, Apple is aiming to keep it guards up and bring new magic to the iPhone to hold it's throne. This summer unveils an epic battle between two mighty giants, the outcome of which will determine who holds the throne for almost the next year or so. So here we go, an analysis on the Strengths and the Weakest link of both the giants.

Apple
Strengths

• User Interface: Apple is the undisputed leader in designing an intuitive user interface and the IPhone is no different. That a phone can do so well even without a real keyboard is due to the wealth of features and the always intuitive layman features which Apple brings in.
• App Store: Easily the biggest strength for Apple over Palm. Started only a year back, the App Store has grown in enormous proportions with more than 20000 apps. Any mobile application is bound to find it's way to the Apple App Store first, due to the huge user base and high returns. With demands not subsiding and new features and APIs being added in, the App Store is only going to draw more developers and naturally more customers to it's realm.
• Well refined touchscreen OS: Developing an intuitive touchscreen OS is a big challenge. Even Apple stumbled a lot in the beginning with issues in connectivity, performance and reception. But over the past two years, Apple has toiled hard to produce a very stable and reliable operating system. This will be a huge strength against the new-kid-on-the-block Palm Pre.
  

Biggest weakness
Though the IPhone has been a runaway success, it has its own share of quirks. People have long lamented the lack of very basic features (like MMS, copy/paste,etc). The latest IPhone 3.0 is more of a catch-up game to plug some of these holes. However very many features like flash, background apps and video recording are still missing on the IPhone and to Palm's advantage, they've nailed a few of these. Whether these lacking features will really bite Apple is the question that remains to be answered.

Palm
Strengths

• Strong background: Palm was the pioneer in introducing the concept of smartphones and proved that cellphones are more than just a substitute for the Plain-Old-Telephone. Though it had lost ground in recent years to Blackberry and Apple and is now the underdog, it has stayed the longest and carries a wealth of experience backed by a strong developer and consumer base.
• User Interface Integration: What makes the Pre a mighty competitor to the iPhone? The biggest lesson for Palm from the success of the iPhone is the importance of user-friendliness and intuitiveness in making the iPhone (and smartphone) a ubiquitous device. Also from the release of Google G1, Palm learnt that it is just not enough to catch up wirh the competition but instead bring something new to the table to make a real impression. Palm's Pre is a complete rethinking from it's past devices and has an integrated and intuitive user interface, called Synergy. Synergy tried to hide the details beneath the covers and actions happen seamlessly. For ex, it has an integrated contacts of all mail accounts, chat clients, facebook and twitter users. The Messaging application is one which bring together all kinds of messaging (SMS, MMS, all chat clients, facebook, etc) together so that one can see all the conversation is the same panel.
• True Backgrounding: One critical feature which Palm touts and Apple lacks is true backgrounding in applications. While Apple settled for the Push Notification alternative, Palm claims to have perfected the art and has opened up to inbuilt background apps. If Palm lives up to it's claim without a significant reduction in battery life, it can entice a huge gamut of applications that can only be dreamt of on the iPhone.
  

Biggest Weakness
Palm's biggest weakness is that of starting from scratch and going against the well established Apple customer base. For eg, The new Palm App Store and SDK will be an infant standing up against the mighty and refined Apple App store which boasts of more than 20000 apps.

End Note: Palm's reentry is promising and has got people to turn their heads. The Pre is loaded with features that can make the device stand out in the limelight. Apple on the other hand, brings in a plethora of new features through the iPhone 3.0 OS. As for Palm, unlike the introduction of iPhone by Apple, itdoes not have much time to get its OS right. It has to get it's act together fast and that too, on the very first attempt. In all, the battle of the Titans is equally matched!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]