Palm at CES 2010 – 3D, Video, Pre and Pixi Plus and More
It was one year ago at CES that Palm introduced webOS to the world. This last Thursday, Palm again presented at CES. Expectations were running very high and Palm did not disappoint. Palm announced new networks, new revisions of the Pre and Pixi, new developer tools, new software features and more. We’ll cover the presentation in detail and even give you the opportunity to view a video of the presentation. Keep reading.
Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s Chairman and CEO, took the stage in Las Vegas to recount where Palm’s been and tell us where Palm’s going. Click on the video to watch the entire 50 minute presentation.
The follow are the key points:
Hot Apps Bonus Program
Katie Mitic, Palm’s SVP of Product Marketing, announced $1 million in prizes to be awarded to top webOS developers. The prizes are open to both free and paid apps developed using Palm’s existing Mojo SDK. The prizes are tiered as follows: $100,000 each to the top downloaded free and paid app, $10,000 each to the developers of the next two most downloaded free and paid apps and $1000 each to the developers of the next 200 most downloaded free and paid apps. The download period will be between February 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010. Drop by the newly relaunched Developer Center to get started developing your app today.
3D Gaming Comes to the Palm Pre
The announcement that got the most reaction was the release of 3D accelerated games, made available by Palm’s new Plugin Development Kit (or PDK). Joining Palm onstage to make the announcement was Travis Boatman, VP Worldwide Studios for EA Mobile, who introduced some of their new titles. In all, twelve PDK titles are available in the App Catalog, including the much hyped Need For Speed Undercover, The Sims 3, X-Plane 9 and Tetris. You can see a video review of Gameloft’s Ashpalt 5 on WebOS Roundup.
More important than the release of these twelve games, though, was the PDK itself. The PDK allows for development of applications that work with webOS but that are developed with C and C++ — in other words, native applications. One of the criticisms from some developers is that Palm’s Mojo SDK, based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, is too slow for some types of applications. The PDK, and the fact that Palm has been testing this with some partners possibly since the release of webOS, indicates that Palm was well aware of this and has a solution.
While we’re excited about the release of the PDK we’re not sure that the capabilities of the Canvas element have been fully realized by game developers. As Frank Zammetti pointed out, there is a tremendous potential for applications developed with existing Web standards. Particularly as we see technologies such as WebGL get included in webOS. Further, battery draw from games that tap the GPU will likely be big issue.
The PDK is scheduled for release in March on the Palm Pre and a later date for the Pixi. In case you missed the significance of the statement, the 3D games available today in the App Catalog are only available for the Pre, not the Pixi. Those missing 80 pixels could be very significant indeed.
Video Recording, Editing and Sharing
Those of you who’ve been following the homebrew announcements knew that video recording is possible on existing webOS devices. It was only a matter of time before Palm incorporated the feature into the OS. Palm demonstrated their upcoming video recording functionality at CES. What they also demonstrated was the integrated video editing and sharing capability. With a few clicks, Paul Cousineau, Director of Product Marketing at Palm, edited a video he shot live at the event then uploaded it to You Tube. After it was uploaded, he used another feature to share the video with his Facebook feed.
Many have criticized Palm for not having the feature available before now. Hopefully, this very slick implementation will go a long way towards smoothing any ruffled feathers. What’s more important is that this feature will be included with webOS 1.4, another free update available to all webOS devices sometime in February. Although it wasn’t discussed, we hope that audio recording will also be included in 1.4.
Flash 10.1
It was confirmed that Flash 10.1 will be available soon. According to Paul Cousineau Flash 10.1 will be available for download from the App Catalog. This feature will open up the Web even further for webOS devices. Some have pointed out that the recently announced SlingPlayer, being Flash-based, will work on webOS, allowing you to watch and control your TV on your Pre or Pixi.
The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus
Palm also showed off the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus smartphones at CES. The Pre Plus sports double the memory and storage (512 MB RAM, 16 GB Flash) of the original Pre and sheds the center button. The Pixi Plus adds WiFi and more storage and memory. Both devices will ship with Touchstone compatible backs. These two phones will be Verizon exclusives (see below). No doubt the increased memory and storage will be important for applications developed with the PDK, as many users have noted that the 3D apps sometimes fail to launch with the dreaded ‘too many cards open’ message.
Another Verizon exclusive will be the ability to use the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus as a MiFi hotspot, allowing up to five devices to share the 3G connection. All you’ll need to get your laptop online is the app and a webOS device on Verizon. What was not disclosed is how much the data plan for that will cost.
New Networks
Palm announced two new network partners at CES: SFR in France and Verizon Wireless in the US. As mentioned above, Verizon will be getting an exclusive on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus (at least in the US). Verizon currently has about double the subscriber base of Sprint in the US so this opens up a huge market for Palm and app developers. What remains to be seen is how Verizon will promote the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. If they are half as successful as they were with their Droid Does campaign then the more consumer-focused webOS devices will sell very well.
Analysis
It seemed that Palm’s announcements were targeted very strongly towards developers. Palm realizes that in order to compete with Apple and Android its important to have apps. The opening of the developer program, the freeing of the app distribution process, the Hot Apps program and the PDK all point to the fact that Palm is deadly serious about expanding its App Catalog. Palm is actively courting developers and is making it clear that they embrace openness, even giving a ‘shout out’ to the homebrew community at CES. This is very exciting news and this strategy will very likely bear fruit.
What a strikingly different out-of-box experience awaits those users whose first webOS device runs webOS 1.4 as compared to those of us who started with the first release of webOS. Certainly the underlying OS that we all love hasn’t drastically changed but the power, features and available apps have grown tremendously. Kudos to Palm for the customer focus and rapid updates. This is clearly one area where Palm outshines Apple and Android. Many Android devices are stuck on older versions of the OS and are unlikely to ever see updates and Apple’s releases are slow in coming.
Prior to CES we predicted a number of things. We got most of them right. We missed on seeing a non-Palm branded webOS devices and we didn’t have any clue about the Hot Apps program. However, what was most important about CES is that Palm has again generated buzz. They showed that Palm was not to be ignored in the smartphone wars of 2010. They reinforced that they are committed to extending the functionality of their devices through more updates to the OS. They showed they’re committed to reaching more end users. We think 2010 will be a great year for Palm and a great year for webOS users.
Other Reviews of Palm at CES
All Things Digital agrees that Palm has shaken things up once again. Slashdot has some coverage of the Hot Apps Program. Ars Technica ha a writeup about CES. PC Magazine has a hands-on with the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. About Palm Pre has some interesting thoughts on Palm’s developer strategy that mirror our own. And, of course, PreCentral has a lot of articles about CES.
