The Palm Pre has been riding fairly high on a wave of publicity since its launch just a few weeks ago, so much so that Apple seems to have decided that it might be prudent to take a little wind out of the smartphone’s sails by announcing that, although the new device’s claim to be able to seamlessly synch with Apple’s iTunes store may be true at the moment, that may not be the case for very much longer. Sound a little draconian? Sure enough, but business is business and anyway, this move is built into Apple’s existing company line, which says that,

“Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with,
non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over
time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide
syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.”

So, be forewarned new and potential Palm Pre owners. Apple is a jealous guardian of its markets. If you were hoping to be able to download music and movies to your heart’s content via iTunes, think again, or at least do it quickly. No doubt Palm will be ratcheting up its plans for its own apps store for the Pre, the App Catalog, but that’s a good way off and there’s pretty much no chance that it will feature anything to match the entertainment media of iTunes. So, although it is definitely premature to write off the Palm Pre, it is probably not too early to remove its equally premature mantle of iPhone killer.

–Tom Milnes

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