Once a market leader in personal data devices, Palm all but disappeared from the market. But now are they are back to take their rightful place in the market or are they being naïve. With the advancement of technology and the successes of Apple’s iPhone, Google Android and RMI’s Blackberry, are Palm placing all their hopes of survival in one basket?

Palm have recruited many of Apple’s ex-iPhone workforce to come up with a serious challenger for the iPhone. ‘The Palm Pre’ is born.

The Pre has received a very positive reaction from many Smartphone critics and has generated a huge amount of interest since its announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year.

A first look at the specifications and the new Palm webOS, the Palm Pre certainly looks like a very impressive smartphone.

The main focus has been Palm’s new webOS platform, focused on people on the move. The phone automatically recognises when the owner connects to websites, social networks or e-mail services and builds up a global list of contacts and login details as it is used.

The phone has an innovative interface based around its touch screen and a “gesture area” below the display. And unlike many other smart phones, the Pre also allows users to have several applications running at once and easily switch between them. It has built in 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera with an LED flash and 8GB of flash memory, there is also a wireless charger.

Finally, not much is known about the availability of an App store which is becoming ever more popular with smart phone companies and users led by the iPhone App store.