Apple Keeps Palm Pre In The Shade

In a two-fingered salute to one of its main rivals, Apple can’t guarantee compatibility with iTunes and third-party mobile phones

It seems Apple latest iTunes update has blocked other vendors from synchronising music and content for their smartphones – Palm Pre just being one example.

When the Pre was first released, some experts in the mobile phone space were seeing it as a direct rival to the iPhone due to its web-based software and the functionality of its interface.
At the time, Apple made no comment, even though Palm openly admitted its Pre could connect to iTunes because it sold itself as an iPod product. Now Apples latest patch has closed that loop hole so now the likes of the Pre are left out in the cold.

Palm called the patch a “direct blow” to Apple’s users, not to mention a direct blow to themselves. While some people – especially Pre owners – will see this as Apple acting the heavy, some would argue, why should others ride on the back of Apple who have put all the work into iTunes? After all, third parties don’t pay for the privilege.

As for Apple, they make no apologies, stating that the new patch “also disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods, including the Palm Pre”.

Palm has pointed out that the Pre would work with previous versions of iTunes and that users “could simply choose not to update iTunes or could use a USB cable to directly transfer files.”