Pre Syncs With iTunes: Are You More Interested?

Pete Mortensen ()

palm-d7-023

Image via Engadget

The biggest announcement at today’s fairly lackluster All Things D7 conference is that the very intriguing Palm Pre will sync easily with iTunes — it even pops up an iPod icon in the process. It won’t be able to play any old iTunes DRM’d films, but anything else is fine.

Now, assuming that Apple lets this stand, this is a very bold move by Palm. Apple’s ecosystem of iTunes, the App Store and its various hardware devices is the real strength of the iPhone. With Palm offering its own App Catalog and iTunes integration, it really will come down to which OS is nicer, and which hardware is more appealing.

Honestly? If the Pre weren’t limited to 8 GB, it would be hard for me to say with any certainty that I’ll be picking up a next-gen iPhone. Credible competition is grand, ain’t it?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

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Posted in Apple, iTunes |

  • kiran

    yawn

  • Giovanni Bianchi

    Oh my… They reverse engineered the iTunes-iPod communication protocol, didn’t they?
    No way Apple is going to let them do that for long!

  • Lucas

    on the itunes issue. so long as it was done within Palm’s software, Apple can’t claim copyright. in fact they have allowed 3rd party plugins for awhile. probably as a move to avoid any anti-trust claims since the ipod is a major player in the digital media player market.

    on the Pre itself, I see nothing that is so special about it that it is miles ahead of the iphone/ipod. given that I hate both sprint and verizon and would rather have a GSM phone that I can take on my trips overseas I sure won’t be getting a Pre at the moment. that I want to have all my music and my video with me cuts out the Pre at the moment (due to DRM). and the aps store issue is a factor.

    so at the moment, no Pre for me. in the future, we shall see.

  • Ashley

    I just wish iTunes would let me sync to my MacBook Pro (from my Mac home media server). If a Pre can do it, surely someone can make a MBP do it …

    Please.

    Cheers,
    Ashley.

  • Matt

    I wonder what the rate of return will be on the Pre after Apple closes the sync down when the product launches?