Pre

Return rates: Palm Pre 11%. Apple iPhone 3GS 7%.

How often does the Palm (PALM) Pre break down and have to be returned and exchanged for a new one?

That question came up a few weeks after the Pre's June 6 launch when Jesup and Lamont analyst Kevin Dede, citing a decidedly unscientific online survey, reported that the Pre's return rate was a shocking 40%.

Pre Central, the site that conducted the poll, promptly disputed its own results. It ran a MORE

iPhone vs. Pre: Satisfaction bakeoff

Palm Pre owners love their smartphones, but not as much as owners of Apple's new 3GS iPhone love theirs.

In a survey of 200 3GS users conducted Aug. 4-11 by RBC Capital and ChangeWave Research, 99% pronounced themselves satisfied, of which 82% were "very satisfied."

In a matching survey of 40 Pre owners, 87% said they were satisfied and 45% "very satisfied."

Nonetheless, writes RBC's Mike Abramsky in a report to clients Friday, MORE

Six out of 10 doctors prefer iPhones

Healthcare professionals would seem a natural market for smartphones, especially if the Obama administration makes good its campaign promise to computerize U.S. health care records.

But which smartphone will doctors and nurses be using?

Software Advice, an Austin-based resource for software buyers, tried to answer that question last week. In what it admits was not a "super-scientific" survey, it e-mailed a questionnaire to 700 healthcare professionals and processed 71 replies. The results, MORE

Apple vs. Palm: Fresh shots across the bow

To the delight of an armada of tech writers, Palm (PALM) has responded to the shot Apple (AAPL) fired across its bow last week with a cheeky little blast of its own.

The issue is whether Apple will continue to allow the Pre to sync seamlessly with iTunes, the feature of Palm's whizzy new smartphone that got the most attention in advance of its launch in early June.

Apple unleashed an iTunes MORE

The trouble with Nokia's iPhone killer

No. 1 handset maker unveils (sorta) its iTunes and App Store killer to little fanfare. By Anu Partanen, contributor

Finally, it is here! Nokia's Ovi store, the cellphone giant's answer to Apple's iTunes and App Store, and a central piece of the company's new strategy. Well, actually, it has been here for a couple of months already, but who knew?

If you have not heard of Ovi, no one will blame you. Nokia (NOK), MORE

Apple plays softball with Palm

As you may have heard, Apple (AAPL) on Wednesday pulled the plug on a much-hyped feature of the Palm Pre: its ability to sync seamlessly with iTunes.

On Thursday Palm's (PALM) shares took a nosedive, falling 7.4% in early trading from Wednesday's high as the rest of the market was enjoying a midsummer bull run.

But by the end of the trading day, Palm was back where it started Wednesday, no worse MORE

Apple, Palm seen cutting into BlackBerry sales

Growing competition from new smartphones carved into Research in Motion's (RIMM) June sales, according to a report to clients issued Wednesday by Piper Jaffray's T. Michael Walkley.

RIM's BlackBerry still has a huge market share -- nearly 20% of the worldwide smartphone market, second only to Nokia (NOK), according to Gartner -- but Walkley's retail checks found some erosion in BlackBerry position last month.

The problem, according to Walkley, is that carriers MORE

Analyst: Palm has sold 150,000 Pres

With Palm's (PALM) quarterly earnings due Thursday -- along with Jon Rubinstein's debut performance as CEO -- analysts have started to place their bets on what the quarter will show.

First out of the box -- or at least, first in our inbox -- is RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky, who expects investors to look past soft fourth-quarter results and focus on the potential for growth in the next fiscal year.

Specifically, his MORE

Munster: 500,000 new iPhones this weekend

Will there be long lines outside Apple Stores Friday at 7 a.m. when the iPhone 3GS goes on sale?

Gene Munster thinks there will, although not as long as last year's.

Piper Jaffray's senior research analyst issued a report to clients Thursday in which he estimates that Apple (AAPL) will sell half a million units of the new iPhone this weekend.

That's half as many as Apple sold the weekend of July 11, MORE

Apple to Palm Pre: Drop dead

Ever since January when Palm (PALM) unveiled the Pre -- the first smartphone to challenge Apple's (AAPL) iPhone with a multitouch screen of its own -- the tech press has been waiting for Cupertino to respond. COO Tim Cook made a couple of clenched-teeth threats about companies that rip off Apple's intellectual property, but nothing came of it.

Until now.

On Tuesday, 10 days after the Pre went on sale, Apple published MORE