In a move that is very unexpected by gadgets and mobile technology enthusiasts, Palm announced its latest effort to keep survive in highly competitive mobile phone world. In the world which is dominated by iPhone and Blackberry for the past 2 years, Palm’s last effort: Palm Pre in and the new operating system called Palm webOS, may not only survive them in the competition. It may bring them back to be one of the major players aside of Apple’s popular iPhone, current “ponsel sejuta umat” Blackberry and the giant-yet no-longer-gigantic Windows Mobile.

From the first look and demo, the phone and the new OS  are very promising. The specs and features are on par with most high-end smartphones. The interface reminds us a lot of iPhone’s elegant interface. It looks “zen-esque” simple, beautiful and user friendly. It is designed a lot with finger touch in play (iPhone effect), but it is better, because… it comes with QWERTY tactile keyboard!

Announced in the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the phone itself has not yet launched in US. Palm indicated the 1st half of 2009 as their target date. It may appears on US stores by May or June. But it is likely to be sold under Sprint CDMA network. No news yet for the unlocked GSM release date. So we can only hope to get them in hand here by second half of 2009.

Well, my Samsung i780 is not too old either (it’s still 6 months old). One year may be a good timing to swap. Back to Palm! Yay!

Witness its beauty and elegance here in the revamped palm.com website, or take a look at the pictures gallery at the bottom of this post. Honestly, I’m stunned. It’s like God listens to our wish for all of this time, and send this one from heaven. 🙂