Bono and investors take on iPhone with new Palm Pre
By Dan Buckley

Saturday, June 06, 2009

IF you haven’t found the mobile you’re looking for, a new smart phone that claims to outsmart even Apple’s iPhone is being launched this weekend in the US.

Investors in the firm that developed it, among them our own U2 frontman Bono, have already made millions of dollars from the touch-screen Palm Pre as industry reviewers have been awestruck by its power, elegant design and ease of use.

In a remarkable achievement, Palm, a company that was considered a has-been, has come up with a phone operating system that many herald as more powerful, elegant and user-friendly than anything that has gone before.

In its heyday Palm sold the iPhone of its time, the Palm Pilot, which it introduced in 1996. That device was revolutionary, succeeding where Apple had failed with the Newton. By merging with Handspring in 2003, Palm became a leader in smartphones with its Treo, a combination mobile phone/organiser/email device.

Yet by 2007, the year Apple launched the iPhone, Palm’s products had lost their way. Its newest idea, a slimmed-down portable computer called the Foleo, fizzled even before being launched, despite being a prescient precursor to the latest all-the-rage product: the netbook computer.

Now, however, Palm, may very well be back in the premier division of smart phones.

The Pre, which goes on sale in the US for $200 (€140), makes it easier to do more things on the go and uses webOS, Palm’s new operating system, beloved of multi-taskers.

The webOS offers all the usual items needed to compete: Facebook, Google and Microsoft Outlook integration, web messaging tools and a nice interface.

Palm also has a good set of apps to start its Pre launch and will be hoping developers will follow with apps to compare with the phenomenally successful iPhone app store.

According to several reviews, webOS makes Windows Mobile system seem clumsy by comparison, while the Pre makes the iPhone look clunky and out of date.

Uniquely for a non-Apple device, the Pre pretends it’s an iPod when connected to a Macintosh or Windows PC with iTunes, so that a music library and photos can easily be transferred to it. Palm engineers have managed to integrate the necessary code in Palm Pre’s hardware DNA to allow it to sync seamlessly with Apple’s popular iTunes system. They did this with the help of some of the finest ex-Apple employees available, including the man who built the original iPod for Apple.

However, the likelihood is that Apple could launch a legal challenge against the company for making it iTunes compatible.

The device itself has been getting rave reviews. The New York Times described the Palm Pre as "elegant and joyous". Of particular praise are the Pre’s "stunning" appearance, "flowing" webOS, multitasking and the unified calendar.

The release of the Palm Pre has brought about unexpected hopes for a revival of the nearly left-for-dead smart phone maker. It has also become the lynchpin in the on-again-off-again career of the technology banker behind the firm’s turnaround.

Palm is 38% owned by Elevation Partners, a Silicon Valley private-equity firm whose two most visible partners are Bono, a rock star who wants to be taken seriously as a businessman, and Roger McNamee, a technology investor who wants to be a rock star.

Already Bono reportedly has made US$82.3 million (€59m) from Palm’s 34% share price increase after the company revealed its new operating system and phone to the specialist media.

At the same time, his partner, McNamee, spent most of the past two years touring the US with a group of high-priced session musicians that compose his country-blues band, Moonalice.

Elevation is still searching for a landmark deal that will secure its long-term future. "Elevation is the quintessential example of the bubble," says one of the central figures of the private-equity world.

"They raised a billion on no real track record or plan. It was all the glamour of investing with a rock star."



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, June 06, 2009



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source: irishexaminer