Now this is more like it. After two quiet years for anything pocket-sized, Palm walks into CES 2009 and steals the entire show with the Pre and a brand-new operating system called webOS. It is the most exciting phone software I have seen since the iPhone, and it is not even close.
Cards, gestures, and real multitasking
webOS does the thing everyone else is still struggling with: true multitasking, with apps living as cards you flick through, and a gesture area below the screen that just feels right. The hardware is a cute little slider, but the software is the star. If Palm can ship this on time and convince developers to show up, it has a genuine shot at being the third platform that matters.
The trend for the year ahead
The smartphone OS race is wide open. Apple has the lead, Android is starting to find its feet, and now Palm has thrown down something fresh. The next twelve months are going to be about who can turn a great demo into a real ecosystem.
I am rooting for webOS, because ideas this good deserve to win. The worry is always the same with Palm: brilliant vision, uncertain muscle. I hope the muscle shows up.
Part of 20 Years of CES Through My Lens, my year-by-year diary of the show.