BY WALTER S. MOSSBERG
When Apple rocked the cellphone world Tuesday by unveiling its radical and gorgeous new iPhone, it was bad news for Palm Inc., whose Treo smart phones will be severely challenged by the new iPhone when it goes on sale in June.
I attended the iPhone launch event, and was able to use one for a little while. That's too brief an encounter to allow me to write a proper review. But I can say that it has the largest and most beautiful screen I've ever seen on a cellphone, even though it's incredibly thin. It felt great in my hand. It has a brilliant new user interface; the handsomest email program and Web browser I've ever seen on a phone; a full-blown iPod music and video player built in; and even a cool new voicemail system.
The iPhone has some potential downsides -- it doesn't use a physical keyboard, instead relying on a virtual keyboard on the screen, which may put off heavy email users. It runs on the relatively slow EDGE cellular data network, though that flaw is partly offset by the fact that it can also use speedy Wi-Fi wireless networking. And, with a $499 base price, it's expensive.
Still, the iPhone made my relatively new Treo 700p seem primitive in many respects when I compared them side by side. And the Apple product isn't Palm's only problem.