But there’s more to the Pre than the hardware. Palm is betting big on its new Web OS that is always connected to the Internet and for which developers can write applications in CSS, HTML or JavaScript. The UI is interesting with lot of gesture-based commands and the ability to multi-task. But then again, it seems highly inspired from other platforms — Apple’ iPhone and Google Android, in particular. Like the iPhone, we don’t see any mention of a stylus anywhere and hence assume that it’s going to be a completely finger input-based UI.

The manner in which the UI has been arranged in a deck of 3×4 icons and the quick launchpad is reminiscent of the iPhone while background notifications is a leaf taken out of the Android OS. Palm seems quite optimistic about attracting developers for this OS, but it depends on the company’s capabilities to churn out more devices running on this platform, more frequently.

The folks at Palm are also quite upbeat about Palm Synergies, which basically consolidates your contacts from different sources into a single place. It does the same to your e-mails and IM clients. Palm’s intent seems to pitch the Pre at corporate users who’d like to use the iPhone but want the capabilities of a BlackBerry. 

Another thing that remains to be seen is the pricing and availability of the device in different countries. Our experience says that Palm tends to over-price its wares when compared to competition, in countries where it doesn’t bundle the device with a carrier. (This holds true especially in India.)

Palm has tied up with Sprint in the US to exclusively offer the Pre on their network though the time of the launch or the price is currently unknown. We, for one, are not yet convinced that the Pre was what the doctor ordered to save a struggling Palm