My thoughts 100% Peter.

A lot of the hype seems to have died down and if you read the Twitter streams closely you pick up a certain sense of muted expectations.

My thought is that Palm must execute the Pre launch in much the way the gymnasts must execute a perfect routine to win Olympic Gold.

One wobble on the landing of an otherwise perfect routine will in my opinion cause Palm to fail. I do not think there is a lot of financial or market mindset wiggle room here.

I hope the Palm Pre is an awesome device because as we've seen recently – the only thing that seems to prompt companies to innovate is (a) competition that (b) takes their market share.

Palm has all of it's eggs in the Pre basket…and holding that basket (at least in the US) is Sprint. To me, this may be the really scary part. I really want Palm to succeed as a hardware company, but if not, I at least hope that somehow WebOS will survive even if the Pre craters on impact.

From what I have seen so far, WebOS could be a dream to develop apps on. I say could because, well…no SDK…COME ON PALM! Not having a device ready to ship when you announced was one thing…the hype is dying. Not having your SDK ready yet when your product is going to be ready in the first half of 2009 is so much worse. I believe Palm, WebOS, and the Pre will live and die on the development community and how much Palm can foster those relationships in a way that Apple is not capable of. So far, the glimpses of WebOS are promising, but the delays releasing the SDK to the developers trying to plan out the next platform to release their products on is just depressing.

Palm needs to be the anti-Apple when it comes to developer relations and I truly believe they have a good shot at being a great comeback story.

Nice analogy Wayne!, as an addendum I got an email today to say Palm have released a whole heap of stock, Pre the Pre, I only assume this is another attempt to bolster the company as theyy lead up to this release,
"Palm Announces Pricing and Increased Size of Public Offering

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Mar 09, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today announced that it increased the size of its previously announced public offering of common stock to approximately 23.125 million shares, including approximately 18.5 million common shares underlying 49% of the units of Series C preferred stock and warrants acquired by Elevation Partners in January 2009. The public offering price per share will be $6.00. Upon the closing of the offering, Palm will receive net proceeds of approximately $83.9 million. Palm expects to use the proceeds to strengthen its working capital position and to further bolster the resources it is devoting to the launch of the Palm(R) Pre(TM) and future product-development efforts.

The underwriters will also have a 30-day option to purchase approximately 3.5 million additional shares of common stock from Palm to cover over-allotments, if any.

Elevation Partners, which will recoup the $49 million it originally paid for the units, will use those funds to purchase approximately 8.2 million shares of Palm's common stock in the offering at the public offering price.

A copy of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to this offering may be obtained by contacting Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, 180 Varick Street, Second Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department or by email at prospectus@morganstanley.com or J.P. Morgan's prospectus library at National Statement Processing, Prospectus Library, 4 Chase Metrotech Center, CS Level, Brooklyn, New York 11245.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful.

SOURCE: Palm, Inc."

They must need money for a new coach!