iPhone 3.0 vs Palm Pre

With the summer release of the iPhone 3.0 software set to coincide with the launch of Palm’s much-hyped Pre it looks like the battle between the two will define the smartphone industry in the second half of 2009 (especially if the long rumoured iPhone nano emerges around the same time). But does iPhone 3.0 add enough to bring into line with the most cutting edge smartphone OS? Cut and paste and MMS, after all, only bring it into line with the cheapest phones on the market. What of the rest?

Background tasks
There will be no suppport for background processes in the iPhone 3.0 software, Apple’s justification being that it hit the battery life to hard. Maybe they should just equip their phone with a bigger battery, like all the other smartphone manufacturers do, then it wouldn’t be a problem. Most users would accept an extra millimetre on the phone’s thickness in return for a few more hours between charges.
Winner: Palm Pre

Notifications
Push notifications are secondary to background processes, but a welcome addition nonetheless, as they supply near real-time information on server-side events. The way they are presented to the user, however, differs on the two platforms. On the Pre, as in Google’s Android as well, they are unobtrusive, located at the bottom of the screen, and won’t interrupt any other task you are working on. On iPhone 3.0 they are presented in a big dialog box that looks as if it will require immediate attention. And how does it handle multiple notifications at the same time?
Winner: Palm Pre

Unified communications
The best thing about the Pre and WebOS is Palm’s new Synergy technology. It unifies all your communications with a single contact into the same view, regardless of the email address or IM account they used. It’s a concept that has been adopted by HTC for their forthcoming Touch Pro2 and Diamond2 smartphones and is likely to become increasingly common throughout the year. iPhone 3.0′s new Spotlight search function might go some way towards replicating this feature, but the decision to stick rigidly to the multiple apps/multiple accounts approach to messaging will begin to look very dated very soon.
Winner: Palm Pre

Apps
The App Store has been the iPhone’s biggest success story, while the capabilities of third party apps on WebOS remains the biggest question mark against the Pre. Apple has added over 1000 new APIs to its SDK, including the abiity to leverage the Maps and GPS functionality in other apps (hello turn-by-turn navigation), as well as a new micro-payment system. Signs are that Pre apps will be much more simple, and won’t stretch as far as 3D gaming.
Winner: iPhone 3.0

So the battle is on. iPhone 3.0 has introduced much for developers to get excited about, but the new in-phone features merely fill in some of the gaps of the previous versions. Which means that the Palm Pre is still the phone we are most excited about. Although if Apple pulls out all the stops with a new phone in the summer that could yet change.

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