The second device using Palm's webOS, the Pixi is scheduled for release on Sprint's network for $100 on contract. While the OS maybe new, the form factor is not and that may attract more customers than the Pre.
Candybar phones are generally one of the most durable phones for the simple reason that if you drop a flip/swivel/slide phone, there's a higher chance that it will break upon impact. Bar phones are built well with fewer moving parts or joints.
For those Blackberry users, the Pixi may be more at home for you than the Pre because of it's screen and physical QWERTY keyboard. Better yet, it has a capacitive touch screen and a touch-scroll bar below it. It's for those of you dreaming for a keyboarded bar phone with touch screen (where is it, Blackberry?). I have to warn you though, keyboarded touch screen phones sometimes don't work out as dreamed.
At this point, I'd choose the Motorola Droid over my iPhone 3GS, but I'd choose the Pixi over the Droid (only if it was on Verizon). But the smart phone market is still rapidly developing with better processors, bigger screens, and higher capacity batteries so you can bet that none of these current devices will hold much ground in the coming years or even months.
