the iPhone itself is the only “killer” out there – a disruptive new product that makes something/everything else obsolete or marginal. it “killed” every variety of “smartphone” that existed in 2007. then in 2008 its App Store “killed” the old high-priced mobile application setup, which is now in its death throes.

we’ll see who kills what in 2009.

No phone will “kill” or take another phone off the market. The Pre will only available for Sprint at the time of release and the iPhone is only available for AT&T right now. Neither phone can kill one another due to the fact that they are on separate carriers. Sure if they were on the same carrier, sales could be compared to one another, but pricing and contract pricing per device would also have to be taken into account. Also, there are definitely big fan followings of both devices; the Apple crowd, the Palm crowd, the Blackberry crowd, etc. Take me for example, I currently use a Palm Treo 755p on Sprint. I would LOVE to have an iPhone, but I don’t have AT&T and what I pay with Sprint is such a good deal, I don’t want to leave it. So, it kinda goes without saying that I’m excited for the Palm Pre to come out for Sprint. Something iPhone like with its own take on things and a combination of what works well on other phones. I wouldn’t call myself a Palm fanboy as much as I would call myself an Apple fanboy, but I can only have so much.

Since the Palm Pre isn’t even out yet and I haven’t played with it myself, I can just go off of what has been released about it so far. If comparing it to iPhone, the network is superior, Sprint’s EVDO Rev. A is much faster than AT&T’s 3G network, the camera/camcorder is 3MP compared to iPhone’s 2MP camera only, the ability to run multiple apps concurrently is something iPhone doesn’t have, and wireless charging is definitely a cool feature. The iPhone has the ease of use and simplicity going for it, the backing of the App Store and seamless integration with iTunes, and multiple storage capacities available. The superiority of physical vs. software keyboard is debatable. I definitely like the physical keyboard on my Treo but using the software keyboard on my iPod Touch with the auto correction feature is also quite quick. Overall, I’m excited for the Pre to come out, mainly because I can have a cool-looking, full featured, iPhone-like phone, but also because it will drive competition upward and hopefully create better Apple, HTC, and RIM products as well.

How many products have been codenamed “iPod Killer?” (The Zune and a Creative model come to mind.) I’ve yet to see the iPod be “killed.” It just makes a company look stupid when they say they are going to smash their competitor, who has HUGE marketshare, and then of course fail to do.

And don’t get me started on individuals calling everything a “[insert device] killer…”