Palm may actually be doing something like this with the Javascript apps, which would not be that hard to implement given that they are in control of the VM. They only have to appear to be multitasking as a user-facing feature. They don't actually have to be fully preemptively scheduled in the way that desktop apps traditionally are.

I think RIM has an extra in because of all the infrastructure they have at existing companies – I don't know nothing about it, but I have heard that the RIM solution for exchange integration is still more robust than what the iPhone and Pre offer. But who knows. And I hadn't thought at all about it but you're absolutely right – there will be free Android phones. That'll go a long way towards expanding that user base!!

We'll see about apps on the Pre, that's definitely a huge question mark on that platform. I just don't really understand how they can get away with all that they're doing (15-20 running apps and using javascript as a language), but if they've got the horsepower to do it, I guess more power to them! It will definitely be interesting to see what happens when you max out the Pre's ability to multitask. I'm looking forward to all this!

I think bad mouthing the iPhone or OSX is a serious mistake on their part. Their product appears to speak for itself for now, so it's unnecessary, and if Apple continues to innovate, Palm will only make themselves look stupid and lose sympathizers who were rooting for the underdog.

As far as the actual success of their platform goes, I still think they are positioned to displace RIM and compete with Android. RIM seem to be in the weakest position because the Pre appears to do everything a Blackberry does very well while extending the experience significantly. Android is a different matter because it seems as though anyone else who wants to make a smartphone will end up using android, so there will be a lot of cheap Androids around, and a lot of asian makers iterating on hardware. My guess is that Android phones will be free before very long.

I find it interesting to consider the alternative decisions to see how Palm would have looked had it taken them. Most significantly – what if they hadn't based their API around javascript and CSS? How would people have responded to yet another programming model? Wouldn't it have looked absurd? So perhaps we should be looking at it as the only reasonable path forward rather than a stroke of genius. Furthermore, let's not overlook the fact that webkit – which is enabling them to do this is actually developed by apple, and that the iPhone has the HTML5 database functionality too.

I have 60 applications on my iphone right now, and I've probably removed 2/3 of the apps I've every installed. Would the palm end up with 60 applications running? For all the complaints about springboard, it's not obvious that the card interface would work better. Most importantly, are users going to need to deal with a task manager of some sort to avoid having their batteries be killed by adverts running on the web apps or poor coding?

The one thing that Palm cannot rely on is that 3rd party developers will be well behaved. That's the driving force behind Apple's restrictive decisions, and certainly not an inability to implement features like multitasking. It will be very interesting if Palm have found strong technical solutions to these issues.