Analysis: Palm Pre sync flap, hardware issues, hurt Palm
Pre fans point to the Palm's WebOS, saying it matters most — Computerworld - Since the Palm Pre launched on June 6, it has been hailed with exaggerated exuberance as an iPhone killer and reviled for pesky hardware problems.
Context & Ripple Effects
The Pre arrived carrying two years of iPhone-rivalry baggage — Palm's 2007 Treo-vs-iPhone framing set up webOS as the company's comeback bet, and the run-up was all software promise: Ed Colligan argued in March that webOS was bigger than just the Pre base, and by April early developers said the platform lived up to its hype.
Five weeks after the June 6 launch, that narrative has hit two snags at once: reviewers and buyers are reporting pesky hardware problems, and Apple has moved to close off the Pre's iTunes syncing workaround — enough that Palm shares sank on the news, per Reuters' pickup of this story. The fan counterargument, that webOS matters most regardless of the hardware, is now doing heavy lifting.
First-order effects
- Palm takes an immediate financial hit: with Apple shutting down iTunes sync, shares fell, undercutting the launch momentum the June debut had built.
- Early Pre owners are left choosing between a flawed physical device and losing the iTunes integration many had counted on as a migration path from the iPhone.
Second-order effects
- Palm is forced to defend the Pre on webOS merit alone — the developer goodwill from April becomes the product's main asset now that the iPhone-compatibility halo is gone.
- Apple's unilateral revocation of sync access sets a precedent other handset makers leaning on interoperability with Apple's ecosystem must price into their launch plans.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, smartphone competition consolidates around closed ecosystems rather than open interop: a rival OS can no longer ride an incumbent's desktop software, so platform control becomes a moat in itself.
- For Palm specifically, the episode tests whether a strong OS layer can carry a hardware maker whose first device underdelivers — a structural question for any software-led turnaround in phones.
The trend: The smartphone market is shifting from 'iPhone killer' rhetoric toward ecosystem control, where incumbents can revoke interoperability and force challengers to win on their own platforms.