Everybody's talking about the Palm Pre -- which debuts this Saturday -- as being a serious competitor for the iPhone and Blackberry smartphones. (Aside: Note how I didn't use the oft-over used phraise "iPhone Killer." Thank you, thank you.) Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodgett, however, in a contrarian piece today, thinks it'll "bomb.")

It's easy to describe some of the innovative new software features that Palm has rolled out in the Pre, but what you really want to see is someone handling the device. You can't find one of these babies out in the stores yet.

So, for now, you've gotta watch the tech media-herd groping at them with their fingers. At the very least, you'll get a feel for the smoothness of the interface and how you can move between the apps. Some of the excitment around the Pre is the fact that it will have a touch screen PLUS a pullout QWERTY keyboard.

Personally, for me, I think the fewer moving parts on my cellphone, the better. One less thing to break. I like the iPhone's virtual keyboard and have learned to type pretty quickly with it. And, when I don't need it, it goes away and I could do other things with the screen, like watch videos. A CNET reviewer (watch the third video on the jump) makes a key point about how if you're viewing a web page in landscape mode, you'd still need to turn the device to input text -- no virtual keyboard option.

Another huge hurdle Palm is perceived to be facing is attracting the developer community to work on apps and populate its own app store. So, some seem to think that'll be a big problem but I'm not so quick to count Palm out. Developers who are first to market with a killer app on a powerful smartphone could end up making a lot of money. The iPhone app store is a pretty crowded, competitive space. Easier for a cool app to stand out on the Pre, no?

Anyhow, I'll stop yammering. Check out some Palm Pre videos below. Are you gonna be waiting in line this weekend to buy one?

*From the Associated Press.