The Palm Pre is easily the most talked about phone since the original Apple iPhone. We're talking millions of Web posts, hundreds of thousands of blog mentions and more than 5,000 recent news items picked up by Google News.
With the iPhone often regarded as the pinnacle of mobile magnificence, comparisons are natural.
Since winning top honors at the Consumer Electronics Show a month ago, the Pre also has been on a media and blogger roller coaster ride.
During and shortly after CES, the Pre was labeled as the second coming of smartphones. "Palm Pre Preview: Simply amazing," reported Gizmodo.
After being "both blown away and pretty overwhelmed" by the Pre at CES, engadget stood a little further back a week later to take a less impassioned look.
"The long and short of it is this: the Palm Pre and webOS are the first real challengers to the iPhone's innovative approach to a mobile UI and data management," Joshua Topolsky wrote.
But it didn't take long for the naysayers to step up.
"Setting all the yummy goodness aside, the single worst word uttered at the Palm event was 'Sprint,'" wrote a commenter on CNET's Buzz Out Loud Lounge.
And by the end of the month, some wiseguy editor at Seeking Alpha posted this item under breaking news:
"Most agree Palm's Pre is a winner, but one nagging question remains (besides Apple's threats of litigation): Will partnering with Sprint Nextel drive customers away?"
Most of the recent buzz has centered on similarities between the iPhone and Pre touchscreen, and whether the Pre is infringing on an Apple Multi-Touch patent.
"A touch-sensitive area of the device that, unlike the touchscreen, does not display visual output," reported All Things Digital. "Hmm. That sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Where have I heard that before… Oh, I know, in Palm’s announcement of the Pre."
"Makes you wonder what’s going on in the bowels of Apple legal right now, doesn’t it? Palm legal, too. The company could certainly challenge the validity of the patent if it chose to," wrote Digital Daily's John Paczkowski.
Nilay Patel at engadget took a more serious look a couple of days later.
"If you're to believe the conventional wisdom, Apple has a death grip on multitouch patents...Like all conventional wisdom, this meme is partially rooted in reality, and partially exaggerated for the sake of the story."
My favorite account, however, comes from Jim Goldman at CNBC's Tech Check.
Quoting wireless analyst Pablo Perez-Fernandez of Global Crown Capital, Goldman suggests that the U.S. Patent Office may have made a mistake in awarding a multi-touch patent to Apple.
He suggests a legal challenge by Apple could be a gamble for Palm.
Global Crown Capital's "research indicates that Apple's own patents, indeed its technology, may be in violation of a patent already awarded to the University of Delaware, and that if Apple proceeds with threatened litigation, it may end up with no protections of any kind when it comes to the multi-touch interface for both iPod and iPhone."
At any rate, we here at Sprint Connection are tired of the buzz, and want to see the gear. The latest rumor is that the new phone may launch by March 15.
It can't come soon enough. My now really, really ancient first-gen Sanyo Katana needs to be retired. It only charges when I duct tape the charger on at night.
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