Clearly, OS 3.0 had to be truly stable for Apple (AAPL) to issue such a mandate. And that suggests that the company is ramping up toward an official release–most likely at its Worldwide Developers Conference in early June.

What the company desperately needs is for the Pre to have an iPhone-like debut. But with consumer demand down and the Palm (PALM) brand lacking the cachet and draw of Apple (APPL), analysts say that will be difficult to achieve. Apple sold 6.1 million iPhones in the first full year after the device’s 2007 launch. Analyst’s put Palm’s shipment of Pres in the first year at 2.6 million. “What the BlackBerry and iPhone did was to be game changers,” Interbrand’s Andy Bateman told Bloomberg. “As a brand, Palm is a little dusty. Coming from behind, it’s going to have to do an awful lot to make up the difference.”

And in more than just brand perception. With its typically south-of-$5 shares trading north of $8 on the promise of the Pre, Palm needs to sell eight million units (total handsets, including the Treo, etc.) simply to justify its current stock price, according to Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt. And that, says McCourt, will require “success beyond Sprint” (S). Yet, we’ve not heard about any further carrier deals. For Palm’s sake, lets hope we do soon. With the company’s sales down by about 70 percent in the last quarter, Apple ramping up to release iPhone OS 3.0 and consumers beaten into submission by the recession, this summer is not the best time to be debuting a device meant to take on the iPhone.

Palm, incidentally, is expected to make some sort of official announcement about something or other later today.

BoomTown posted from various spots in Europe this week, yet managed to follow the geek-tastic goodness of Silicon Valley’s own contender, Apple (AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak, who competed while injured this week on “Dancing With the Stars”–and escaped elimination via the love of viewers in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Another founder made the headlines this week–BoomTown noted that Steve Case appeared at a huge pep rally at Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL. Case and former AOL exec Ted Leonsis gave their support (and a lucky green tie) to new CEO Tim Armstrong. Elsewhere, Pure Digital, the maker of BoomTown’s favorite gadget–the ever-present Flip digital video camera–sold itself to Cisco (CSCO) for $590 million in stock, and BoomTown urged Silicon Valley to remember it’s not immune to the recession, to put its nose to the grindstone and to avoid party-hearty inanity.

Guess no one’s taking heed of the warning, though: MediaMemo reports that no one’s getting anything done at work–CBS (CBS) says its March Madness Web traffic is up 57 percent compared to last year. On top of that, television viewership rose various percentages throughout the week. MM wasn’t watching much basketball this week, though–there was plenty to blog about: The New York Times (NYT) cracked down on unauthorized use of its photos; Discovery Communications (DISCA) announced a patent infringement suit against Amazon and its Kindle Reader; Palm (PALM) delivered dismal third quarter results, putting even greater pressure on the success of the Pre; and in a Q&A with BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler, Steve Ballmer said he’s open to a phone call from Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz whenever she’s ready to talk. Oh, and in case you were wondering what happened at SXSW, MediaMemo got a Google (GOOG) guy to explain it.

Digital Daily’s March Madness started with a liveblog of Apple’s St. Patrick’s Day press event to unveil version 3.0 of its iPhone OS, a chronicle of the myriad features displayed onstage and a live photoblog to back it up. DD noted that sales of the iPod touch and iPhone have outstripped RIM’s (RIMM) combined BlackBerry sales by a factor of… well, by a LOT. Kind of supports the data that say mobile Web use doubled over the last year. Which is good, because Mac sales were no good in February.

In Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg reviewed the latest release of Microsoft IE8 (MSFT), its most comprehensive release in many years. His verdict? Mixed, of course. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt talked to readers about the many models of BlackBerry phones and how they differ from one another, the new iPod shuffle and its earphone compatibility and upgrading Vista to Windows 7. In the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret reviewed the Ee Top, Asus’s first foray into the all-in-one PC market.

More next week. Go Woz!

The announcement of an impending update to the iPhone OS will doubtless cause tremors of fear over at Palm (PALM), which now may end up launching its new Pre smartphone in the shadow of an even more formidable rival. Just breathe into the paper bag and count to ten, Ed …

The announcement of an impending update to the iPhone OS will doubtless cause tremors of fear over at Palm (PALM), which now may end up launching its new Pre smartphone in the shadow of an even more formidable rival. Just breathe into the paper bag and count to ten, Ed …