Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was put on Charlie Rose’s hot seat and asked the pointed question: “Is the Palm Pre making a dent into the iPhone market?”

Hesse’s response?

Aaah… It’s-it’s doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it’s almost not… it’s like comparing someone to Michael Jordan.

Gizmodo figured they’d remind Hesse that it was, in fact, the same category and that Apple needs competition (the consumer needs competition). Engadget thinks it was a duly respectful and tactful acknowledgement of the iPhone’s success.

We think it’s nice to hear a wireless CEO who’s not so bombastic and, frankly, disconnected as most of them seem to be, as evident by Hesse’s answers on Android, Nextel, the price of touchscreen handsets, and battery life as an impediment to smartphone growth.

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CEOh-Snap: Sprint Says Comparing Palm Pre to iPhone is “like comparing someone to Michael Jordan”

It’s official — the HTC Hero, currently the most drool-inducing handset the Android platform has to offer, hits Sprint October 11. Sibling site AndroidCentral has all the details, and PreCentral.net has the concern that Spring might be loving the Palm Pre just a tad less when the droid everyone’s looking for hits the Now (and then) Network.

So how competitive will the Sense UI on Sprint at $179.99 be with the iPhone 3GS on AT&T at $199? (We’ll leave the iPhone 3G at $99 off the table for now). As functionality gets closer and closer, Android apps picks up, and ease of use improves, it will likely be the network that’s the deciding factor — who gets more bars in the most places they need to be. [Note: the video above shows the Sense UI, but the form factor above is the original Hero, not Sprint' chinless version]

Oh, oh…

Jokes aside, we’ve seen Nokia N900 upping their UI game, and Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 distressingly still not, should Apple be most worried about the increasingly competitive Google and its increasing army of droideka?

Or is this really — and mostly — just a problem for Palm right? Apple’s enemy’s enemy’s carrier enemy is… what now?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

The Competition: Chin-less HTC Hero Android Invading Sprint

Confession: we secretly hope the Palm Pre does very well. Not because we want one ourselves — we’re pretty happy with the iPhone round here — but because we want Apple and AT&T to think we want one so they continue to drive up innovation and drive down costs respectively. Competition is, was, and will forever be a Good Thing.

Case in point: we’ve heard rumors about Apple pressuring AT&T to lower data rates and/or offer lower price points for capped service. Wall Street Journal takes these rumors and shows why competitive pressure may be at the root of them with a little side-by-side comparison to the impending Palm Pre/Sprint rates. Neatly summarized:

So essentially, iPhone users have to pay $150 a month to match what Sprint will offer Pre users for $100

Hey, if Palm can get Apple to get AT&T to knock 33% off the monthly bill, more power to them (and money to us!)

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip and @CRA1G for melting our hearts -- a little!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Pressuring AT&T to Lower Rates in Face of Palm Pre Competition?

Ouch. Seems Samsung and Sprint tried to bring an Instinct to an iPhone fight. At least that’s how venerable Wall Street Journal columnist and “D” All Things Digital tech yoda Walt Mossberg made it sound in his iClonic “review” (to be fair, the still unreleased iPhone 3G gets more attention — and love — than the unfortunately release-timed Instinct).

How does Mossberg sum up his feelings, some several paragraphs and umpteen iPhone mentions, references, and comparisons down?

If you’re a devoted Sprint customer, or want to avoid AT&T, the Instinct is an OK choice. But it’s no iPhone.

Read

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rebuke of the iClones: Mossberg Strikes Back!

Not evil twin to Phone Different Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!

WinMob on ur Blackberryz

No, Crackberrians, no need to have an OS attack. Ballmer isn’t threatening to unleash his BSOD’d “platform” on the Javaware that passes to power your little e-mail monster (yet). Our bad. Maybe we should have titled this “WMExperts on the Blackberry Bold”, or maybe just “Hawt or Not?” instead?

Anyway, seems WMExperts.com had this to title about the first-to-market iClone job from RIM:

Alright, the BlackBerry 9000 is Hawt

Think of It as an iPhone With a Broken Touchscreen

Blackberryz in ur iTunez

Sadly, this title is accurate. First RIM announces a $150 million development fund for “all mobile platforms” (read “iPhone”, since pretty much every other platform has had development going for years now and should already be a huge success, right?). Then, flabbergast-ingly enough, RIM — incapable of, you know, actually engineering their own way to effortlessly sync media to the Blackberry even with $150 million to throw at it — has decided to use Apple’s. So far there are no reports of RIM actually licensing iTunes connectivity from Apple, like… say… Apple just licensed Exchange ActiveSync connectivity from Microsoft.

Oksy, so let’s get this straight. First, RIM says they’ll give to the iPhone whether Apple likes it — or needs it — or not, and now they’ll take. Fiendishly clever, Lazaridis. Or it would be if you were a 12 year old 133t Hax0r in your parents’ basement, and not the CEO of the (technically) dominant smartphone maker in the world.

Hey RIM, how’d you like it if Ballmer monkey-boy danced his way into your NOC?

Epic kludge.

State of the WinMob — A Microsoft Mulligan?

Microsoft pundit and Apple-baiter extraordinaire, Paul Thurrott gave an(other) impromptu State of Windows Mobile speech on last week’s Windows Weekly:

You know, Windows Mobile is horrible. [...] It’s horrible. Horrible. [...] Don’t even get me started, we don’t have time. I… I… Windows Mobile is a disaster. [...]

[Is Windows 6.1 better?] Better than what? Yeah, it’s better than 5. But so what? This thing has the latest, 6.1 or whatever, the phone I’m using now. God, what a… it’s terrible. It’s terrible. They should be ashamed of themselves. They’ve had this thing… I don’t.. God, it’s embarrassing.

And, you know, I stuck around and I had the motorola Q for along time which I stuck with because of the high speed network and the fact that I could tether it to my laptop and use it as a high speed modem for my laptop. That’s great. I miss that. I’m going to tell you, though, the Windows Mobile stuff.. geez… It’s like going back.. Oh, god, it makes Windows 95 look futuristic by comparison.

[Is it challenging getting an OS onto mobiles?] Okay, Apple did something pretty impressive.

[The iPhone doesn't have cut and paste.] I hear ya, I’m just saying, you know, from a usability standpoint — night and day. [...] This thing is a piece of crap. They should completely start over. It’s horrible. It’s a complete waste of time. They should just pretend this never happened. This is.. it’s… it is the mulligan. They should just start over. Nobody uses the thing anyway. It’s just ridiculous.

[Treo 700w, HTC, and people love Sprint handsets...] I wouldn’t say love. Remember what they love about these devices are the form factors. The keyboards and, you know… You’re not going to find too many people who… I… I shouldn’t say that because, of course… [...]

You know what, look, I hear from Apple guys obviously. At least that I get. I mean, I could have my arguments with these people but at least Apple makes high quality stuff so we can arg–we can nitpick over whatever we want.

If someone is actually going to come to me and explain that Windows Mobile is not, in fact, a piece of crap, I’m sorry, I don’t entertain lunacy. This… This thing is ridiculous.

No, it’s terrible. No, it’s not even like a debate, it’s terrible. There’s no — you know what I’m saying — we can debate things. We can’t debate this.

[...] It’s terrible.

There’s nothing there. And this from a man who likes the Zune…

Yowza.

Palm’s 800th Verse — Same as the First!

Okay, even we have to admit it: the upcoming 800w is the Palm device we always wanted…

Back in 2005 when it should have shipped.

It takes until now to get WiFi? Now? Really? And still not on Palm OS “Granite”, but on Windows Mobile 6.1, which even HTC is desperately trying to hide like a Remond-headed stepchild?

Treocentral.com has the first “spy” pics, but honestly, who can tell if that’s even an 800w and not a 680 or even a 600 with a clever case and antenna mod?

And word to the “shadowmite”, how about obscuring the serial number on the proto and, hey, your reflection on the screen, so, you know, Colligan doesn’t have the hounds unleashed next time he spots you sneaking into the antiquities wing of Palm HQ, b’okay?

Definitions of Nova

nova |ˈnōvə|
noun ( pl. -vae |-vē; -ˌvī| or -vas ) Astronomy
a star showing a sudden large increase in brightness and then slowly returning to its original state over a few months.

Do they pick these code names just so these columns write themselves? Seriously. Nothing says next generation, second coming, return to dominance like something that explodes, kills all life, only to end up an infinitely sucking mass of dark matter.

On the other hand, since it won’t ship until first half 2009 at the earliest — by which time iPhone 3.0 will be on its way, and maybe a new, non-iClony Blackberry revolution (we dare to dream!) as well — perhaps Colligan and Co. really are code name picking geniuses?

And In No Other News…

We already covered how Sprint is spending wasting $150 million advertising dollars just to make the brand new Samsung Instinct pale in copy-catastrophe next to the last gen iPhone, but in an effort to be more helpful than hurtful, here’s some advice:

Just spend the money giving the devices away to your few remaining customers. You’ll move far more units than if you try and sell them, and maybe even engender a few more months of gratitude usage.

Wow, being nice really is its own reward…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

This Week in Smartphone Schadenfreude, May 17th Edition

Either Gizmodo is pulling a CES-TV-Blackout caliber gag, or Sprint has done lost their iCloning minds:

Starting May 9th, Sprint will begin a massive, $100 million marketing campaign aimed straight at the iPhone’s nether regions. Stacking its 3G Instinct against the iPhone, Sprint hopes to show that EVDO and GPS make their product way better than anything coming out of Cupertino.

Wha-wha-wha-what?!

What will $100 million buy the Samsung Instinct? Ads. Ads that compare them spec-for-spec with last year’s iPhone…

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber sums it up well:

[I]t boggles the mind that Sprint is hanging a $100 million dollar advertising campaign on two features — GPS and EVDO networking — that the iPhone is widely-rumored to be picking up in its next-generation hardware. Worse, side-by-side, even in commercials commissioned by Sprint, the Instinct looks like crap next to an iPhone — the screen is way smaller and way less bright. What’s clear is that Sprint is run by MBA-trained executives who see everything as a general “business” problem. In their minds, the same things apply to selling phones as toothpaste. How about this idea: Take $100 million and use it to design a better phone?

What do you think?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Attack of the iClones: Sprint to Spend $100 Million on iClone Advertising!