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Enter the Pre (pre what? you might ask). The Palm Pre. Palm’s newest smartphone, just announced today at CES, is slated to be the next iPhone killer: a smartphone that does all the same things the iPhone does, and then some. It features a multi-touch screen, but unlike the iPhone also comes with a physical slide-out QWERTY keyboard. And MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) capability, which gives you the ability to send video and picture messages. For a full comparison, see Harry McCracken’s excellent side-by-side T-Grid over at Technologizer.

The highlights of the Pre, which make it better than the iPhone (or so we are led to believe), are a virtual laundry list of features. Since the phone is based on Palm’s next-generation platform, the usability of the features will have to be tested when the phone is released. Here are just a few of the major highlights:

• OS: The Pre runs Palm’s new webOS.  No clear winner in the battle, as the Pre is the first webOS-based phone.  Apple has definitely set a high bar with OS X for the iPhone, though.
• Modem Tethering: Included. This feature allows the phone to act as a modem for your computer, so you can browse using your phone’s cell connection.  This is a promised, but not-yet-delivered feature for the iPhone.  It’s usefulness is also based in large part on how useful the phone’s browser is…which brings up another great point….
• Browser: The Pre’s browser is based on (are you ready for this?): WebKit! The same browser engine that Safari and Google Chrome use is now showing up on yet another platform.  Statistics indicated that a large percentage of mobile internet traffic is from Safari browsers (iPhone or iPod Touch), which means that in this new mobile era of computing, Microsoft’s IE is being thumped pretty badly. It’s nice to see innovation, isn’t it?.
• Camera: It does have a bigger sensor (3 megapixels to the iPhone’s 2). Obviously, the winner will depend on the quality of the images, as size is not the only factor. The Pre also comes with a zoomable lens and LED flash - both features the iPhone lacks. The amateur photographers among us may appreciate these features over the iPhone’s more limited offering..
• Copy and Paste: The Pre has it.  The iPhone doesn’t.  Of course, the actual use of it may be clunky—again, testing must wait until the device is released.
• Carrier: Sprint.  The iPhone, as we know, is on AT&T.  Sprint’s outlook is a bit rocky, so this may indeed be a fantastic device that goes nowhere if the Sprint network goes..

Do people really want more?  Apple’s design genius has always been simplicity.  No, their products aren’t perfect for everyone, but they are perfect for a lot of people.  And they are simple enough to use, both from a physical standpoint as well as the UI, so the included features actually get used!  More isn’t always more, so we will have to wait and see if the Pre’s longer feature list translates into actual sales. Plus, the software shortcomings of the iPhone (lack of MMS and copy-and-paste) can be addressed via software updates. Apple already has the iTunes infrastructure built, while Palm faces an uphill battle for ubiquity. In CES years past, there was always at least one “iPod killer.”  I dare anybody to name one of them in 2009.

Product [Palm Pre]