It became more and more apparent that the Palm Pre wasn't ready for prime time. At CES, Palm said that the Pre would arrive on Sprint in the "first half of 2009." But as 2009 went on, we saw no signs of the Pre. Oddly, Palm did release the , a smartphone running Windows Mobile 6.1. I wondered: Was this a stopgap to tide customers over until the release of the Pre?

In a Q&A session with RCR Wireless News, Sprint/Nextel CEO Dan Hesse stated that the carrier wouldn't rush the Pre's release date. He said that Sprint and Palm are working tirelessly to bring it out as soon as possible, but they wanted to be entirely confident that the Pre was in perfect condition when it was released. This pretty much confirmed our prediction that the Pre's announcement was, ahem, premature.

In the meantime, RIM, Samsung, Nokia, HTC and other manufacturers were churning out BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian phones with better cameras, larger screens and more capacity than the Pre. Additionally, Google's Android OS gained some traction with more app developers turning to the platform and the launch the HTC Magic in Europe. On top of everything, rumors of the next iPhone were building momentum.

Finally, Sprint and Palm announced a June 9 availability of the Pre for $200 with a two-year contract. And, as fate would have it, the ten days later. With more storage capacity for the price, a better camera and a much stronger app portfolio, the iPhone 3GS overshadowed the Pre. I don't think Palm was trying to compete with the iPhone by having a close launch date: June was the last month in the first half of 2009, which was the time frame Palm had promised back in January.

Struggling Smartphones