Much has been made of webOS and Synergy on the Pre, and how Palm are betting the farm that users want harmonized digital lives.  With the announcement of iPhone OS 3.0, we’ve also looked at how Apple envisage similar things on the next-generation iPhone.  When it launches, the Pre will offer hitherto-unknown degrees of data integration; with the right developers, though, the potential is there for so much more.

We already know that Synergy links multiple data sources together: that could be a corporate Exchange server, your Facebook account, or a personal or business Google account.  Information – contacts, calendar entries and more – is not only pulled together but done so intelligently: duplicates are stripped out, partial details combined.  Even if you’re only viewing one strand of your life – a work calendar, for instance – the Pre is mindful of other schedules and won’t let you book a conflicting appointment.  Synergy is already ahead of the game compared to rival smartphones, but with the right developer attention it promises even more.

Take an application like ShopSavvy on the Android platform.  A poster-child of Google’s Android Developer Challenge, ShopSavvy allows users to scan the barcode on a product while out in a store – a book, say, or a DVD – and instantly check comparable prices from both online retailers and physically local bricks & mortar stores.  A recent update has added local stock checks, too. 

Now imagine ShopSavvy with an injection of Synergy.  We already know the Pre can track your position and automatically shoot out an email to warn you’re running late for a meeting; why not keep track of which stores you’re nearby too, and flag up any bargains from your Amazon wish-list, artists you may have mentioned on Facebook, or albums you’ve listened to through streaming radio services.  Since GPS can be a glutton for battery power, tie it in to your calendar: there’s no point having it active when you’re sat in a two hour meeting, lecture or film.

There’s no need to tell the Pre which artists, authors or actors we like, either; it has a list of them already, from MP3s in its own storage to lists on social networking sites.  Combine that with location awareness and maybe some server-side magic (ShopSavvy has been accused of hogging battery and CPU if left running in the background) and you’ve a platform that not only knows when you’re free to shop, but where you might be and what deals, bargains and sales you’d be most interested in hearing about.

People miss Synergy’s cleverness because they’re used to working around the limitations of a mobile device, not having the device work with them.  We’re used to maintaining multiple separate calendars and address books, and flicking between them as we try to manage our schedules.  In the same way, all of this Synergized-Shopping experience could be done manually – you could search for nearby stores on Google Maps when you’re between appointments, check the latest prices on your top three favorite authors, try to do it all on a smartphone screen, pecking at a compact keyboard – but the Pre has the potential to work for you, not merely allow for your routines.  That’s what sets it aside from even the most intuitive, usable smartphones on the market today.  With a little imagination, Synergy could be the Palm Pre’s secret weapon.