I've recently taken delivery of a BlackBerry Bold when I was originally in the market for an iPhone. It turns out it did all the things *I* wanted and none of the things that the iPhone did that I didn't want. I didn't want a touch screen that I'd grease up and scratch, I don't need to tilt it to drink a pretend beer or shake imaginary dice, I wanted a phone that did SMS, email and instant messaging perfectly.
Success in this market won't come through emulation, it's through giving your users what you want. The Palm just looks like a HTC or somesuch copy of an iPhone to me.