Palm says no to “O”

Just when you thought you had the latest and greatest Smart Phone on the market, along came the new >Palm pre. Available exclusively to Sprint customers (for now), the pre is Palm’s answer to the iphone. The phone rocks a 3.1 inch touch screen, WiFi and 3G connectivity, web browsing, Microsoft Outlook access, GPS, camera, and a QWERTY keyboard that slides beneath the screen—optimal for serious texters looking to avoid the error filled messages spit out by the combination of big fingers and small touch screens. Former iphone owners say the best thing about the pre is the ability to run multiple applications at one time.

But most unique to the pre, perhaps, is the name itself. Palm’s current handset lineup includes the centro, treo and treo pro. The “-o” on the end of each name seems to be an intentional nomenclature strategy. So did Palm ditch the “-o” for good? Probably not. My guess is they went with a standout name for a standout model. The meaning of the word “pre” offers a lot of creative potential in terms of concepts that are relatively transparent. Whereas preo sounds more like a car, and maybe does not differentiate the new phone quite as effectively from its predecessors. So no hard feelings, “O”, I’m sure it’s only temporary.

Contributed by Laine Beyerl