Has anyone else noticed the shift in attitude around here?

Has anyone else noticed the shift in attitude around here?

I've noticed that the whole tone has changed on this forum recently. Sadly, it appears that people are starting to abandon their faith in the Pre, as well as the future of WebOS. Heck, some of our most devoted posters have jumped ship to other devices. My guess is that enough time has gone by where people have started to get very frustrated. Initially, it was easy to defend Palm since the OS was so new, but even some of the die hard fanboys are starting to get annoyed by a perceived lack of forward progress in WebOS development. It also doesn't help that a bevy of cool new smartphones from other manufacturers are starting to hit market. The fact of the matter is that the Pre is no longer the new, hip device that it once once.

If it seems like this is an anti-Pre post, that was not my intention. In fact, I'm quite happy with the device and plan on keeping it for a long time. I simply wanted to get a discussion going about this shift in attitude. In my eyes, it signals that Palm is in big trouble. What do you guys think?

Plam has not been a major player in the market for a long time, jumping ship for the next latest and greatest after 4 months is silly. It will take a while to determine if palm will stay competitive or not. The Pixi looks like a decent device but no wifi will stop buyers. The next few web os phones will tell the real story. If Palm can keep the development of good devices coming they will keep a portion of the smartphone market. I will keep my Pre for the 2 years to meet my contract and then re-evaluate what is on the market and what works for me, right now the pre works great and I really like the phone and the os.

I think i am one of them who jumped ship eh. Think of this as the calm before the storm. I don't think there has been a shift of attitude but more of the fact is there is not much to talk about like in june and july. No updates and well merh. Webos is new and we just need to wait just like every OS that has ever been released for updates,updates and more updates.

EDIT: http://phandroid.com/2009/11/05/should-palm-drop-webos-for-android/
This is what android fans are saying.

No shift here....i luv my Pre =)

I just joined this forum yesterday.

My contract ends December 1st and I'm strongly considering the Palm Pre. I'm ONLY hesitant after reading about the faulty hardware. I really don't want to get one and then deal with a lemon. Second option is the HTC Hero... I can't afford Verizon's monthly bill. Sprint is $56/mth through work :]

On top of that, a TON of articles are coming up saying that Palm has flatout FAILED. It doesn't make sense to me. How has Palm failed? Gizmodo wrote an article about how Android has already consumed the WebOS now that the 2.0 update is out. Techdirt is saying that Palm needs to drop WebOS and create Android phones. There's more negative portrayal of Palm out there and it's a little overwhelming.

I think right now I'm waiting for November 15th to see what happens. Hopefully this is all in my head.

I feel it gweem. I love my Pre because it has exactly what I need. Personally, I could care less about games on my phone or a ton of apps for that matter. I too will have it for a long time. Remember, people who come to this site are just a small fraction (and I mean small) of Pre owners and I would guarantee that those who do not come to this site still love their Pre. I am a little disappointed though that alot of members have seemed to jump ship.....but most are probably those that crave the newest, latest and greatest at every given moment, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm good for my two years.........when the time comes, I'll make another decision!

No shift here either. I am 66 years old and I got my first smart phone in 2007. It was a Treo 755 (Sprint). I knew the day that they announced a "new Palm" phone (Pre) that I would get one. I was able to get one 12 days post Pre launch. I know there are things that the Pre can't do that other phones, even the Treo 755 can do. I don't care. I like the Pre. I readily accept what some people call limitations, faults, or whatever, and just wait for Palm to release an App for whatever it is. I knew everything the pre could do and everything the Pre couldn't do the day they released the specs and I still bought one. What the Pre can do is what is important to me and what it doesn't do isn't.

I realize a lot of people need more in a phone than what the Pre does, and many people use their devices for business. But they should NOT have bought something without the capabilities they require, and then complain about the Pre and Palm. If the Pre, or any other device, doesn't do what you want, DON'T BUY IT. Go buy whatever device that does do what you want or keep what you already had. If the Pre was the same today as it was on release day, I myself, would still be happy. And nomatter what the Pre will ever do, some people will never stop complaining.

There will always be new devices being released. And there will always be new devices being developed to replace what is already released. Sadly to say, there will always be someone complaining about a company, a device, and a service provider, and lack of apps regardless of the phone's capability. People should research before buying. Buy what they need. And be happy with what you have.

So to answer your question, yes, there is probably a shift of a number of people away from the Pre. And next year, there will be a shift away from whatever device is then popular. That is the nature of how technology affects the public. Is Palm in trouble? I doubt the Pre is any cause of that, if in fact they are. Only time will tell.

You are right - there are those, as you describe above, who jump ship because they crave the newest, latest........but there are other reasons. At the end of my year I am considering leaving the Pre (although I love it) not because of what is new but because of what is old no longer works on the Pre. I came to the Pre expecting it to carry apps it used to have (remember the initial broadcast where all the Pre's partners were listed behind the speakers?) but I don't see them. Because of Palm's delicate financial situation they are liable to fall out of the market any day - if that happens what happens to me? I think a willingness to wait a year shows loyalty to Palm and a desire to give them a chance to get it right. In other words - I am more concerned about Palm possibly leaving me.

I think you bring up a very important point that is often overlooked when taking in the big picture. I do not use my Pre for business, and I think this is one of the main reasons why I am basically satisfied with it. As long as I can talk on it, check my email, and surf the web with a great browser, I'm pretty much a happy camper. I think many people are starting to realize that the Pre is not the best choice for hardcore business use.

Yes, this is definitely part of the overall shift in forum mindset. People used to unflinchingly defend the Pre whether someone's criticism of the phone was valid or not. Early on, anyone who said anything negative was almost viewed as a traitor. Some of the underlying hostility is still present, but I think a lot of it is now aimed squarely at Palm.

still loving my pre, i probably wont leave it anytime soon, i know there is many people frustrated cuz it can't do one thing or another, I got it to do all i want it, not out of the box but that is the reason i like it cuz i worked on it to make it work for me, hacks, patches, homebrews which ever, it took care of my problem, before this i had a Moto Q9c and I know i did anything i could so it will serve my needs and not look out of the box. To me is a toy, my laptop you look at it you could not figure out what OS I'm running unless you hit the Start key(windows key) + pause/break. But that is me, I like braking things to see how they work and then fix them my self, and the pre you couldn't brick it, what harm can i really do to it that i wont be able to fix. There is only one thing the pre is lacking that i would like to have but dont need, vid recording, that is it, zooming and all that for pics, no biggy i got my Canon SD950 is with me all the time, music i got my ipod or use pandora, I'm not big on portable video games but i can always barrow the ds from my son. I'm sure once my year is up ill look for a new toy but who knows i still got 7 months to play with this one.

whatever the reason I've definitely noticed it.

personally I still love the phone but I am growing more and more impatient. I am clueless when it comes to development and testing but I still feel that Palm has missed some very simple opportunities and that they are still messing up.

I am first in line to congrat the pre and first to bash it, i was thinking of jumping ship, to the Hero but decided to stay with palm, i want to see where palm goes, i gave it 1yr till summer of 2010, i would like to see lot of fixes and we all know what they are, no need to get in to them, and i would like to see all patches be put in to the update, dont see why other people should do all the work for palm when all those tweaks / patches should have been in the pre in the first place, want to see if palm will open up to the openGL for gaming, make a faster pre and give us the people options to customize our pre's to our liking,from ringtones to syncing, also dont see reason to pay 3rd party software when palm should have made a desktop manager something like RIM has, so we be able to sync all out information. Want to see what pre 2 would be like, so if palm does not fix its way by next summer i think there will be lot more people jumping ship then just me, look at the HTC Hero they have a simple app that allows you to sync your Hero with MS Outlook and then the Hero will sync with you google account if you have one, or any other that you want to sync with, palm could have made this, huge minus for Palm in my book. I would like to see where these new hires take the pre to, what level they can achieve with pre, 1 yr should be long time for them to do this. Also HTC filed a new patent for something that looks like the swipe cards that the pre has, instead of cards HTC made book with pages, looks interesting, so other companies are moving forward and it looks like palm is just sitting still and playing cat & mouse with Apple and iTunes, who gives a SH*T about this, enough of this game, palm has more things to worry about the stupid iTUnes, just make xml file and call it the day, palm should optimize its os to work faster and more fluent like iphone or the hero, and i never heard of this stupid limit space on any phone, this was not smart on palm behave, palm has a huge mountain to climb so they better start climbing or they will just fall.

I still got my pre.. if 1.3 does not knock my socks off.. I will swap numbers and the pre will become backup to the hero. Hardware wise... The Pre is suppose to be superior than most, firmware needs a kick in the butt.

I think everyone is looking at this backwards...

Android phones are coming out on all carriers in all shapes and sizes it seems so as an end user I feel much more confortable with my Pre than I would be with one of the many Android phones coming out right now. WebOS is being worked on right now specifically for the Pre/Pixi you cant say that about Android phones. I know some people will assume that the WebOS will fail by only being supported by Palm or the Pre/Pixi but I am willing to bet that those 2 phones will be much easier to use than the first 50 Android phones that use android but are not tailored to the hardware of the phone.

Keep in mind that Apple has 1 well made phone model and only those units use apple's OS. Having a broad array of phones does not make an OS better or more sucessful.

I see the future playing out with Android replacing Windows Mobile as the cookie cutter OS that is placed inn smartphones. Apple will continue with what it does best and focus on a single line with its own OS and Palm will have it's smartphones all run WebOS (maybe 3-4 different lines) and strike a middle of the road approach where their devices are tailored for their OS but supports more than 1 series of phones.

Unfortuanetely Apple's model of Building a closed OS around it's closed(legally closed) hardware has been a model of failure in the past. Technology changes to fast.. People are always going to want the latest and greatist. The OS will ALWAYS (IMHO) need to keep up with the hardware in order to survive. Having an Open OS across many CPU/GPU platforms is the ONLY way to go if you plan to survive. Even more so as the mobile device looks to replace the desktop pc.

Android is working or worked on and coming out with 2.0 and 2.1 is in the works, so maybe due to the size of Palm that they are having a hard time developing updates, Android is a huge company and has more developers so they can put more man hours in. But Palm releases webOS to early and under cooked with tons of missing options that should have been already in the OS when released. If within 1 yr Palm does not move there butts lot of people including me will be gone to the other side, Android.