smartphones

On Monday, I asked readers to tell me about their experience with the Palm Pre, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Not surprisingly, the Palm WebOS received most of the accolades for its multitasking abilities and integration of contacts and calendars from various accounts. Others mentioned good call quality, fast performance, and sleek user interface, and the list goes on.

It's been almost a week since I've been using the Pre and some of the newness has worn off. Yet, there are still times where I say "wow" and see where the smartphone stands out from the crowd, so I've rounded up five of my favorite things about the Pre. These are features that I personally find the most useful. Obviously, everyone has different uses and needs for their smartphone, so I'll be asking you to share your list at the end of the post but for now, here's my top five. … Read more

While many lined up this past weekend to buy the Palm Pre, some decided to wait on making a purchase to hear what would come out of the WWDC 2009 keynote, and as we all found out on the Monday, the answer was the iPhone 3G S.

Since then, the cell phone editors have received numerous reader e-mails wondering whether we'd be doing a prizefight between the two smartphones and we just wanted to let you know that the answer is most definitely yes. As soon as the iPhone 3G S is released on June 19 and we get … Read more

Correction 5 p.m. PDT: The Nokia N97 is not yet being sold in Europe, and AT&T sells the E71x with a two-year contract. The E71 is an unlocked version of the phone. The article has been changed to reflect this.

Clarification 5 p.m. PDT: See below for more information about data plans that can be used with the N97 through AT&T.

For a company that has said it wants to be a player in the U.S. market, it doesn't look like Nokia is trying very hard.

On Tuesday the mobile phone giant said its flagship smartphone, the N97, which was announced in December, has gone on sale in the U.S. at the whopping price tag of $699. This price isn't that shocking considering the phone will also be offered in Europe for a comparable price. But in the U.S. where consumers are accustomed to paying $200 for a smartphone, it seems a bit ridiculous.

The reason the price of the N97 is still so high is that Nokia is not selling it through any particular carrier. Instead it will be sold to U.S. customers in Nokia flagship stores in New York and Chicago as well as online.

Nokia has made other phones for the U.S. market and has also sold them without carrier backing. The N95, the previous generation N-series Nokia phone sold in the U.S., retails for about $369 to $468, according to Nokia. In April of 2007, when the phone was first introduced, it sold for about $750 to $800. But a phone priced at $700 in the U.S. market is likely to be too high for U.S. consumers, especially when most devices sell here for $200.

Nokia also couldn't have picked a worse time to debut the N97 in the U.S. market, which happens to be just days after two of the most anticipated smartphones of the year have been launched. On Monday, Apple announced its latest phone, the iPhone 3G S, which will go on sale next week. And on Saturday, Palm started selling the much-hyped Pre.

Each of these devices can be bought for far less than the Nokia N97. The 16GB iPhone 3G S will sell for $199. And the 32GB model, which has the same amount of built-in memory as the N97, will cost $299 when the phones go on sale next week. Apple has also cut the price of its 8GB iPhone 3G, introduced last year, to only $99. The Pre, which also has a slide-out QWERTY keypad and a touch screen like the N97, is $199 with a $100 mail-in rebate.… Read more

Sprint Nextel executives said Monday that the launch of the much anticipated Palm Pre on Saturday hit a new sales record for the company.

Neither Sprint nor Palm is discussing specific sales figures, but Tim Donahue, vice president of business marketing for Sprint, said that the launch exceeded the company's expectations.

"We experienced our best one day of sales and single weekend sales for any phone we've launched in our history," he said. "We sold out of the device over the weekend in most of our store locations. And it happened at a much faster rate than we had planned on. "

While the crowds that showed up on Saturday morning to buy the Pre at Sprint stores and other retail locations where the phone was offered were small in number compared to the crowds that have gathered for the past two iPhone launches, analysts are calling the launch of the Pre a success. A J.P. Morgan report estimated that more than 50,000 phones were sold in the first two days the phone was available. The Wall Street Journal cited analysts who said that between 50,000 and 100,000 Pres had been sold.

Now Sprint and Palm must wait to see if the momentum will continue.… Read more

As we all know, the Palm Pre went on sale Saturday, and while there's no question about the smartphone's popularity in terms of interest, the bigger question is whether this enthusiasm turned into actual sales over the weekend. Well, if early numbers are to believed, things look promising for Sprint and Palm.

The two companies have yet to confirm figures, but analysts have called the Pre launch a success. J.P. Morgan reports that "sales in the first two days probably exceed 50,000," meeting its expectations but falling short of the 146,000 units sold … Read more

With the Palm Pre successfully launched and sales well under way, several developers on Monday unveiled new apps for the smartphone.

The applications include Zumobi's Today Show and Sporting News Baseball apps for on-the-go news and sports updates, and LikeMe, which offers personal recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and so forth, based on your location. In addition, Beeweeb and Agile Commerce announced their plans to offer services to help developers create apps for the Pre and Palm WebOS. You can see a whole list on Palm's blog site.

These new apps join the dozen or so programs that were … Read more

With the announcement of iPhone OS 3.0, we knew that real-time, turn-by-turn navigation would soon become a reality on the iPhone. It was just a matter of when and how, and it looks like we finally got our answer on Monday.

Joining Apple onstage at the WWDC 2009 keynote, longtime GPS manufacturer TomTom unveiled its application for the iPhone, bringing maps and voice-guided directions to the smartphone. The biggest boon for drivers is the addition of the audible prompts, since the current iPhone is only able to provide text-based instructions through Google Maps. In addition, TomTom will offer a … Read more

NEW YORK--The much-anticipated Palm Pre may have gotten almost as much hype as the Apple iPhone over the past six months, but its opening day fell short of the attention iPhones grabbed on their first days.

Unlike the huge crowds of people that formed long lines and camped out in front of Apple and AT&T stores days in advance of the iPhone's launch, crowds for the Palm Pre were much smaller and tended to arrive in the morning just before stores opened.

Neither Sprint nor Palm have released official figures about how many devices they hoped to sell on the Pre's first day. But Sprint representatives had been trying to downplay expectations for iPhone-like crowds ahead of the launch. Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott told The New York Times earlier this week that the company not only didn't expect long lines for the Pre at its 1,100 stores, but that it didn't want them.

And it looks like the company got its wish. Salespeople at Sprint stores in New York City said a handful of people gathered outside their locations early Saturday morning. But most lines didn't even come close to the madness experienced on iPhone launch days.

Crowds tended to be bigger at Best Buy stores, which were offering the device for the $199 price without the $100 mail-in rebate. Customers buying a Pre from Sprint, the exclusive carrier of the device, pay $299 at the time of purchase and can get $100 back with a mail-in rebate. According to Rich Pesce, a Sprint spokesman, most new phones offered through the carrier have the mail-in rebate offer.

Many Best Buy locations sold out of the Pre almost immediately.… Read more

This weekend will be a big one for Palm and Sprint. The Palm Pre goes on sale Saturday and while it may be a while until we see specific numbers in terms of units sold, I think one thing's apparent: Palm is back.

The story's been told many times before. Palm, who enjoyed much success early on with its Treo series, fell from grace after it failed to deliver new, exciting products. In August 2007, Engadget wrote an open letter to Palm, calling for an intervention after the company turned from "respected underdog and innovator to repeat … Read more