AT&T Scores Palm Pre Plus And Pixi PlusAT&T Scores Palm Pre Plus And Pixi Plus

Today Palm announced that AT&T has decided to sell both the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus. This is good news for Palm, which has over 1 million Pres and Pixis gathering dust in warehouses somewhere. I can't quite say if it is good news for AT&T or not.Don't get too excited. There's absolutely nothing new or innovative going on here. Palm has announced that some time over the course of the next few months, AT&T will commence sales of the only two phones Palm still makes and sells: the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus. By the time they go on sale, the Pre will have been available to U.S. consumers for nearly a year. As is clearly evidenced by Palm's financial performance, Sprint and Verizon customers haven't been too hot for either device. WIll AT&T's subscribers make a difference? I doubt it.

As for the phones, they are practically unchanged when compared to the models being sold by Verizon Wireless. The only difference is that Palm has swapped out the CDMA radio technology used by Verizon's network for the GSM radio technology used by AT&T. That's it. No other improvements or changes.

That's disappointing to say the least. No improvement in storage (from 16GB to 32GB)? No increase battery size/life? No redesigned keyboard or tweaked menus? No improvement in processor speed? Nope, none of that.

In terms of software, the only difference will be the substitution of AT&T's branded applications for Verizon's. Palm did point out that subscribers will be able to merge their online AT&T contact databases with the Pre's and Pixi's Synergy contacts application. Um, great?

What's very absent is the awesome hotspot creator application that Verizon allows both the Pre and Pixi to use. The app basically turns the Pre and Pixi into a MiFi -- able to support up to five other devices and connect them the Verizon's 3G network via Wi-Fi. AT&T subscribers get gypped on that one.

So, AT&T subscribers, if you haven't already bought the iPhone, or if you aren't already saving the pennies for the Google Nexus One, go ahead and wait a few more months for a year-old phone with a platform that has only 1,700 apps backing it up to hit the market. It's going to sell like hotcakes, right?