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	Home / Cell phones / Business smartphones / CES 2009

	Buy Now or Wait for a New Smartphone?	By Philip Berne, 12 January 2009

With the Palm Pre on the way, as well as new Windows Mobile phones and a popular BlackBerry update, should you buy a smartphone now, or wait for the newest products to drop?

At CES 2009, Palm dominated the show, both in the mobile phone space and among consumer electronics all around. With that in mind, smartphone customers in need of a new device might be wondering if they should buy a new smartphone now, or wait until some of the newest products announced at CES are unleashed onto the U.S. market.

Palm Pre and the new WebOS

The new Palm WebOS was a dazzling, engaging new operating system. It seemed very powerful and capable, but not stodgy, like a business phone. We love the unified messaging idea. It's something we've been calling for, and it just makes sense to group all textual communication together into one easy spot. We use Gmail, Exchange and Facebook regularly, so the Palm Pre touches all the right bases for us. Most importantly, though, among our stable of smartphones has always been an active Palm device. Palm makes an easy-to-use, effective and quick smartphone, and we have a long memory for when the first Treos were the best devices on the market.

That said, the past couple years have taught us much about smartphone operating systems. Manufacturers promise so much potential for their iPhone or Android devices, and guarantee openness and developer support, but in the first year this has never materialized. We've usually been happy with the features that are available out of the box, but great iPhone apps and games didn't show up until a year after launch, with the iPhone 2.0 software update. We're still waiting for the killer app for T-Mobile's G1, which probably won't appear until developers can charge for software.

Our hands-on time with the device gave us confidence in the hardware. Palm bragged about the new TI OMAP3 chipset the Palm Pre will use, and in action the hardware seemed snappy, with some complex graphical maneuvers taking place onscreen. We're even hearing that the hardware could change slightly before the phone is released. The carrier-exclusivity may scare away some, but we're carrier-agnostic at infoSync. In fact, we find Sprint consistently offers the fastest data throughput, so we're happy the troubled network landed the exclusive.

BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones

Beyond the Palm Pre, are there any other business phones worth waiting for? Windows Mobile devices made an especially poor showing at this year's CES. The two most significant devices were the T-Mobile Shadow and the T-Mobile Dash. If those sound like familiar phones, its because they are pretty much rehashed designs for existing models. The Shadow gets a slight boost, and it's now able to use T-Mobile's unlimited HotSpot calling plans. The Dash is now available in black. That's it, there's nothing more exciting than that. Of course, we're hearing a lot of rumors about significant improvements to the Windows Mobile platform this year. Steve Ballmer himself has hinted at improved Web browsing and a new OS, but we've seen nothing to suggest a firm date on either of these necessary improvements.

T-Mobile also quietly released the new RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 at CES 2009. It's the slimmest BlackBerry with a real keyboard (read: not a BlackBerry Pearl), and it also uses Wi-Fi for UMA access to T-Mobile's unlimited HotSpot calling plans. Otherwise, its like a pared down BlackBerry Bold, which isn't a bad thing. In fact, the current BlackBerry Curve is one of the most popular smartphones on the market, so if history is any guide, this update is sure to be popular.

Our Verdict: Wait for the new phones

Our verdict is that Palm addicts should definitely wait for the new device, and we don't see too many business devices that pique our interest more than the allure of the upcoming Palm Pre. There are some solid, mature offerings on the market right now from Apple and BlackBerry, so if those are your platforms of choice, you wouldn't do wrong picking up an Apple iPhone 3G or a new BlackBerry. But if you were a BlackBerry Curve fan and you want an improved interface and a slick new design, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is one to wait for.