By now most of us know that the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes, but the real question is how this is accomplished. Many have stated that they believe Apple and Palm have struck a deal to get this accomplished. According to John Johansen’s Blog this is not the case.
"So how has Palm most likely enabled the Pre to sync directly with iTunes? By doing the following:
- When you select “Media Sync” on the Pre, it will switch its USB interface to use Apple’s Vendor Id and the Product Id for a specific iPod model
- The Pre exposes a filesystem through Mass Storage Class that mimics the structure of an iPod
- The Pre responds to Apple’s custom USB command and returns XML info about the device
What can Apple do about this? When two parties implement an open standard, there’s usually some differences. In this case, there’s two implementations of a proprietary standard and it’s almost guaranteed that there will be differences. Apple will analyze the Pre and find out what those are. They will then be able to update iTunes to tell a real iPod apart from the “PrePod”."
While we all knew the Palm Pre has a very nice interface and the usability looks to be on the same level as the iPhone, the way to put media onto said device was the true differentiating factor. Others have tried to accomplish syncing with iTunes via third party software, but now that the Pre mimics an iPod and syncs directly to iTunes, it makes the Pre a true competitor to the iPhone in ever way. Competition is always a good thing and hopefully it causes Apple to take note and further innovate themselves while lowering the price to remain competitive. Only time will tell what the Pre is capable of and what SPrint could do to possibly emerge as a better carrier. We are betting the Pre really takes off once it moves to Verizon 6 or so months down the road.
