Apple Blocks Palm Pre from Syncing with iTunes

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

4:30 pm on July 15, 2009 | Category: Web Services, Mobile Devices, Cell Phones, Multimedia

Apple is playing hardball in the battle for smartphone market share, cutting off iTunes support for the Palm’s recently released Pre device.

The latest version of iTunes (v8.2.1) “disables devices falsely pretending to be iPods,” an Apple spokesman confirmed. “As we’ve said before, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with unsupported digital media players.”

This, of course, is a negative development for Palm, which has essentially bet its future on the success of its Pre smartphone. The loss of iTunes compatibility is one less potential selling point for the new device.

Palm Pre users who want to use iTunes still “have options,” however, according to a Palm spokeswoman. So long as these users stick with an older version of iTunes syncing with a Palm Pre shouldn’t be a problem.