More on the Potentially Epic Battle of Silicon Valley Innovators...

On Monday, Ryan Kim of the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a story which appeared on the front page of the Business section, about the upcoming "potentially epic battle" between Palm and Apple.  In it, he rounded up opinions from a number of folks including Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates ("This is a must-win for Palm..."), J. Gerry Purdy, the chief analyst for mobile and wireless at Frost & Sullivan ("They've leapfrogged the competition..."), and Charles Golvin of Forrester Research (From what I've seen, this looks like the closest competitor to the iPhone...).

He also talked to Sprint's Kevin Packingham, senior vice president for product and technology development, who said Palm and Sprint have a lot to prove with the Pre.

And no Pre story is complete without some words from a developer. Again, Pandora has stepped up with their chief technology officer, Tom Conrad, stating, "To me the Pre is the first post-iPhone example that gets the formula right. The hardware is extremely compelling and feels great. And it also has a really great operating system with a fantastic user experience."

Ryan's story also compares the Palm Pre with the anticipated Apple iPhone 3.0, noting "it is rumored that a new iPhone will be announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference June 8-12."

Here's our question: Palm at least initially seemed to hope that they could make the message of the Palm Pre something other than "iPhone killer" or "Pre vs. iPhone," but that's definitely now how it's panning out in the larger media and the fact that they're releasing right before WWDC also cuts against that message.  We still think that the two can certainly live together in harmony -- but how would you frame this "Pre vs. iPhone" stuff?

The Pre release buzz continues...