Palm Inc. said on Thursday its newest smart phone the Pre, which is coming soon, will feature Palm Media Sync, Twitter Search and App Catalog.

The long-awaited smart phone can connect to Apple's iTunes software and download music and photos just as if it were an iPod or iPhone.

Simply connect Pre to your PC or Mac via the USB cable, select media sync on the phone, and iTunes will launch on your computer desktop. You can then choose which DRM-free media files to transfer,” the company said in a statement.

The Pre is the first non-Apple device to link with iTunes. Kara Swisher, co-creator of All Things Digital, asked Palm executives if Apple was going to be concerned about this capability.

I don't think so, Roger McNamee, managing director of Elevation Partners said to the Wall Street Journal. They are practically a monopolist and this is what consumers want. Consumers own all this media.

When asked asks about Palm’s competitors at the conference, Jon Rubinstein, Palm's executive chairman and former Apple executive, said “Clearly Apple and RIM”. He adds that “the battle that’s going to be fought is not about hardware, but software.”

Opportunity here is to persuade people to move from the ‘feature phone’ to the integrated device,” said McNamee, indicating that the iPhone is a feature phone while the Pre is the integrated device.

The Palm Pre phone will be available from Sprint on June 6 for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement and $100 mail-in rebate. More information is available at www.sprint.com/palmpre and www.palm.com.

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