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Palm Pro: keeping the dream alive
- TAGS:GSM, Palm, smartphone, treo, unlocked
- IT TOPICS:Hardware, Mobile & Wireless, Personal Technology, Windows & Microsoft
In Friday's IT Blogwatch, we take a gander at Palm's new smartphone -- no locks, no subsidy. Not to mention more Error'd...
Sitting on the fence, it's Nancy Gohring (with fried egg):
Palm Inc.'s decision to sell an unlocked Treo Pro, its newest smart phone aimed squarely at enterprise customers, could either be the start of a new trend or a sign that the struggling company may face even harder times to come.
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In a break from tradition in the U.S. mobile phone market, Palm today introduced the Treo Pro and said it will sell the smart phone unlocked. That means it won't be marketed, sold and subsidized by an operator ... it's common in Europe for people to easily buy unlocked phones.The Treo Pro, which runs Windows Mobile and includes Wi-Fi and GPS (Global Positioning System) capability, will become available later this year.
Laura M. Holson ain't gray, but she is a lady:
Devotees of Palm’s Treo brand of smartphones (whoever is left raise your hands) have a new model to get excited about: the Treo Pro ... a sleeker and more elegant version of its once popular Treo ... powered by the largest battery Palm has ever used in a device giving it five hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby ... 4.49 inches by 2.36 inches wide ... you can choose between AT&T or T-Mobile’s G.S.M. networks and switch at will.
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It also has ... a switch that silences a ringing phone immediately. (That way you don’t have to fiddle with turning it off.
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Palm, which has been beset by trouble the last few years, hopes the Treo Pro will bring back a little of the consumer-friendly sheen Palm has lost to competitors like Research in Motion and Apple. Next year will be the real test. That is when it plans to introduce a device using the new operating system Palm’s engineers are furiously working on.
Joshua Topolsky adds:
Palm has gone and gotten all official with its latest and greatest smartphone, the now-familiar Treo Pro. The new Windows Mobile device is being sold unlocked (!), and features an HSDPA cell radio (tri-band UMTS, quad-band GSM), GPS, 802.11b/g, a 320 x 320 touchscreen display, 256MB ROM, 128MB RAM, a 2-megapixel camera, support for microSDHC cards up to 32GB... and a standard 3.5mm headphone jack!The Pro will run you $549 contract-free here in the States, while you'll be able to purchase it through Vodafone and O2 for prices ranging from €399 to nothing at all (with a contract, of course) ... watch the totally radical -- and long, and detailed -- video after the break.
But John Herrman's not convinced:
Palm is in a tough place right now, with a staid reputation, a decade-old OS and a line of phones that are all, well, sort of boring ... Palm's revitalization plans, which are being carried out under the guidance of CEO Ed Colligan and Apple vet Jon Rubinstein ... aren't altogether inspiring.
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Palm is ailing because their competitors' products are just better.
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The attractive Treo Pro may have dropped today ... but if Palm doesn't deliver a fantastic OS 2, and soon, their future doesn't look too bright.
Cyrus Farivar goes all misty-eyed:
Before I had an iPhone, I had a Treo 650 ... This was the first time that I had used a smartphone for any extended period of time. Suddenly I had e-mail, Web access, and, omg, movies! Using a snazzy piece of open-source software, TCPMP, I could watch whole episodes of "Star Trek" on my way to work with no problem. Sure, it didn't quite fill up the whole screen and was letterboxed pretty bad, but whatever, I got an awesome phone.
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Since then, Palm has been on a pretty quick downward spiral and really didn't release anything of note to counter the onslaught from the BlackBerry and the iPhone ... This is make it or break it for Palm, like, for realzies this time.
Mark Evans, too:
Amid the excitement about the iPhone (despite its software woes) and the recently-launched Blackberry Bold, you sometimes forget that Palm is still alive (if not well!). Lest you forget, it wasn’t that long ago that the Palm was the hottest smartphone around. People loved the Treo.
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Today, Palm is pretty much a forgotten entity even though it continues to come up with new products ... As Palm dealt with technical, financial and ownership issues, the smartphone market got away from it. The next thing you know, the Blackberry has gone from feisty Canadian start-up to the device used by millions to get mobile e-mail. Then, Apple moves into the market just as 3G networks are starting to emerge.Palm’s trials and tribulations are common in nearly every industry but it is interesting that it’s nearly disappeared from the smartphone landscape.
MS Davids tells us how to get one free:
$549 is a pretty steep price for a phone. How does the average Palm customer get his hands on Palm’s most desirable Treo ever. The solution is simple: Buy an iPhone 3G for $199 and sign up for a 2 year contract.Step 2 - yes, there is a step 2. Sell said iPhone 3G, still boxed, on E-Bay for around $700. Does not matter if its locked or not, prices are still pretty steep. This part is important - keep the SIM card AT&T gives you. This is where Apple’s innovative SIM Removal Tool’s importance becomes clear.
Step 3 - buy a Palm Treo Pro for a mere $549, or $50 out of pocket for you. Pop your AT&T SIM card into your Treo. Proceed to laugh merrily while iPhone 3G users drop calls, suffer constant resets and apps that wont start and revel in your ability to cut and paste.
And finally...
Buffer overflow:
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 22 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
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