Right before the launch of the Palm Pre, the press was buzzing about a feature that had remained quiet until that time: That the Palm Pre can sync with iTunes. This is a key feature at least in theory as the Pre is seen as the biggest competitor to Apple’s iPhone to date. It stands to reason that Palm may have wanted to keep the feature under wraps until the launch neared, so Apple couldn’t neutralize it. Which it seems is exactly what they’re getting ready to do.

In a rather odd update on the support area of its site today, Apple has an entry titled: iTunes: About unsupported third-party digital media players. While it never explicitly mentions the Pre, or any other device, it doesn’t take an Apple Store Genius to figure out what it means. Here’s the full text of the article:

Apple designs the hardware and software to provide seamless integration of the iPhone and iPod with iTunes, the iTunes Store, and tens of thousands of apps on the App Store. Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.

So basically, if you have a Pre and are syncing iTunes with it, enjoy it while it lasts. You may want to back up your data elsewhere, because very shortly, that syncing will very likely no longer work.

I like how Apple sort of implies that it’s okay with these third-party leaches using iTunes, but that it simply can’t support them. Yeah, right. Hope you enjoyed that few weeks of functionality, Palm.

[via Daring Fireball]