Verizon Pre 3 Spotted in the Wild

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Friday, April 8, 2011 2:00:14 PM

verizon hp pre 3 While it's not as surprising as the sighting of the first all-touchscreen WebOS device, another newsworthy handset was spotted in yesterday's batch of leaked images on Precentral.

Since its announcement at HP's February WebOS event in San Francisco, little has been said about the upcoming Pre 3. It was widely speculated that a version would be appearing for Verizon Wireless, due to its dual CDMA/GSM radio design. A picture was sent to Precentral yesterday confirming that some variant of the Pre 3 is indeed running on the Verizon Wireless 3G CDMA network.

Since Sprint has taken a pass on every WebOS device since 2009's Pixi, Verizon is definitely the leading candidate to carry this handset, as they have supported the Pre Plus, Pixi Plus, and Pre 2 over the past 15 months. In addition, Big Red appears to be gradually shifting their non-LTE smartphones to global devices as a way of extending the usefulness and longevity of 3G handsets. The carrier currently fields six global smartphones running an even mixture Android, Blackberry OS and Windows Mobile, with the Android-based Droid Incredible 2 also an upcoming global handset.

A Verizon Pre 3 would be a nice fit in VZW's lineup and be a suitable replacement for their aging Windows Mobile 6-based devices as well as helping the current Pre 2 meet its reportedly swift EOL schedule.

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Me want

linds @ 4/8/2011 3:30:12 PM #

Hopefully palm will grab some mindshare

Is this the best HP could come up with?

Fake Jeff Hawkins @ 4/9/2011 4:59:16 PM #

1 year to get a decent phone out and this is it? WTF???

This thing had better have jewel-like build quality and a solid implementation of webOS, or else it's time to turn the lights out on webOS.

Give me webOS on iPhone 4 hardware + a built-in PalmOS emulator and I'll buy it. Otherwise it's getting harder and harder to care about anything coming out of Palm/HP.

If HP hasn't gotten their act together by the end of 2011 it will probably be too late - no matter what they may have planned for 2012.

FJH

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

linds @ 4/10/2011 7:19:26 AM #

Yea I agree they have to pull a rabbit out of their hat in the phone space. However when it comes to the tablet space, I don't think there is any great competitor to the IPAD. I want something that has a user replaceable battery, netflix, expandable storage(sd slot), customizable UI, and a price $500 price point(or less).

I feel like someone still has a chance at that number 2 spot behind the IPAD.

This summer/fall will probably help us know who will take that spot. IMO HP should pull out all the stops to be that company. Phone space is difficult to compete in, hook people on your tablet so they learn to appreciate your UI, then they may convert in the phone space.

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

Tuckermaclain @ 4/10/2011 2:13:48 PM #

HP announced a month ago that WEB OS is going to run on every PC they sell. In 2010 they had almost 20% of market share for desktops (#1). This should be a helluva boost for WEB OS. This should have been a story here on PIC.

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

Fake Jeff Hawkins @ 4/10/2011 3:51:46 PM #

"HP announced a month ago that WEB OS is going to run on every PC they sell. In 2010 they had almost 20% of market share for desktops (#1). This should be a helluva boost for WEB OS. This should have been a story here on PIC."

Minesweeper came with every copy of Windows, but did anyone care?

HP needs to have its computers be able to QUICKLY boot into or emulate webOS and also access the same data from The Cloud that is on a user's smartphone and/or tablet. "All your data, EVERYWHERE." should be their new mantra.

Wanna bet they screw it up? (After all, this is still *partly* Palm we're talking about...)

FJH

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

SFO_TXUSR @ 4/11/2011 9:03:00 AM #

I really don't think it is that important for WebOS to run on desktops. What I think is important is for all devices to have the same information when needed. In this day and age, many households will have a smart phone, a tablet and a desktop/laptop PC (or multiple versions of each) and information and content needs to be shared among devices. Many households have a wireless network with connections to the internet. The company that will succeed is the one that recognizes this configuration and some how gets all devices to work together, smoothly.

Today, Apple comes the closest to that realization, although it too has a ways to go. I think HP has the potential, but still has not figured out how to deliver on its promises. I also think another big difference between Apple and HP (and most others for that matter) is that Apple does manage to introduce new capabilities that run not only on new technology, but also will run on older technology, or at least provide an upgrade path. All of this remains important in the market place.

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

Gekko @ 4/11/2011 1:08:27 PM #

>What I think is important is for all devices to have the same information when needed. In this day and age, many households will have a smart phone, a tablet and a desktop/laptop PC (or multiple versions of each) and information and content needs to be shared among devices.

1. Google Services (Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Books, Music, etc.)
2. Dropbox

done.

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

jca666us @ 4/14/2011 4:13:36 AM #

Even if HP pulled a rabbit out of a hat, it wouldn't matter. The rabbit is dead.

There is no worthy competitor for the ipad because no one can match ipad's specs at apple's entry level price point while maintaining a healthy profit margin.

Everything out there is either watered down with a smaller screen, or it's a piece of junk like the Xoom.

HP could have a chance if webos performance on the touchpad is akin to ipad2 performance.

Why would you want a removable battery on an ipad-like device? That wouldn't work well with the form factor.

linds wrote:
Yea I agree they have to pull a rabbit out of their hat in the phone space. However when it comes to the tablet space, I don't think there is any great competitor to the IPAD. I want something that has a user replaceable battery, netflix, expandable storage(sd slot), customizable UI, and a price $500 price point(or less).
I feel like someone still has a chance at that number 2 spot behind the IPAD.
This summer/fall will probably help us know who will take that spot. IMO HP should pull out all the stops to be that company. Phone space is difficult to compete in, hook people on your tablet so they learn to appreciate your UI, then they may convert in the phone space.

RE: Is this the best HP could come up with?

hkklife @ 4/14/2011 11:39:54 AM #

Xoom:
Too heavy, too thick, wobbly proprietary AC charger hideously overpriced/marketed, dim screen

IMHO the best tablet formfactor out there is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7". It's too bad it will never see a major update by its manufacturer. But it works quite wel out of the box, has OK specs, a massive battery, a brilliant LCD and a wi-fi only version is finally out.

Of the larger-screened devices, the Xoom is by far the best of the current crop of 10.1" Android tablets but by no means perfect. iPad2 is still the way to go for the 9"+ screens.

By the way, I am judging these things out of the crop of tablets available TODAY. I really like my Galaxy Tab. It's 7", well-built, lightweight, and has a reasonably small bezel. If it just had a standard microUSB port it'd be nearly perfect. In fact, it's more comfortable to hold than a Nook Color (designed as an e-reading device).
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p->Verizon Moto Droid + Verizon Palm Centro-> Verizon Moto Droid X + Palm TX