When Palm sent US radio shock-jock Howard Stern a pre-production Pre to try out, they were obviously hoping for some mainstream publicity.  That seems to have backfired somewhat, after Stern compared the Palm Pre to the BlackBerry Bold, and went on to state his preference for the RIM smartphone.

Stern’s opinion of the Pre was that it was “a fine phone” but cited its inability to connect to Lotus Notes as a “dealbreaker”.  The Pre has since fallen from conversation on Stern’s show, to be replaced by gleeful, swooning discussion of the BlackBerry Bold’s charms.

Of course, there are lots of people out there who don’t use Lotus Notes and never plan to, and as such Stern’s judgment isn’t particularly relevant.  There are also those who will consciously be swayed toward the Pre out of dislike of the DJ.  Still, Palm might just be kicking themselves for not knocking up some basic Lotus Notes sync for Stern to use.