Double Blow To PalmOS Smartphones

[Ed Hansberry]

A few interesting things have happened on the dark side, er, ahem, I mean on the PalmOS platform regarding smartphones this past week. First up, pa1mOne released the Treo 650 for the Cingular network and apparently, Cingular didn't care for the unlocked price of $599 prompting pa1mOne to raise the price to $699, causing a bit of an uproar in <a href="http://www.brighthand.com/article/palmOne_Raises_Price_of_Unlocked_Treo_650">several</a> <a href="http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=7550">Palm</a> <a href="http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=71576">communities</a>..$699 gets you a quad-band GSM PalmOS 5 device with 23MB of RAM <span><i>(stop snickering)</i></span>, Bluetooth, and SDIO slot that doesn't work with the SDIO WiFi card pa1mOne sells, a 640X480 camera and support for polyphonic ringtones. I'm giddy just reading the specs. :roll: Contrast that to an unlocked <a href="http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=118304">iMate PDA2K </a> that gets you Windows Mobile 2003SE, 128MB of RAM, 43MB of ROM file storage, Bluetooth, WiFi, a voice recorder, 640X480 camera and as well as a QWERTY keyboard for thumbjockies.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2005/20050207-noi550.jpg" /><br /><br />Next up is the long awaited Sprint PCS CDMA enabled Samsung i550. <a href="http://sprintpcsinfo.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=810&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">Dead</a>. Part of the reason is Sprint is leaving the PalmOS side of things to the Treo 600 and moving to the Windows Mobile based i600 for their dedicated smartphone offering.

[sub_tex]

Though the PPC phone kills the treo in specs, you do realize that many people wouldn't be caught dead with that huge thing, right?

The treo is outclassed spec-wise by a lot of smart phones, but it's still the nicest form factor (for many) and is very phone-ish.

That aside, relying on the treo 600 alone is a dumb move for sprint.

But then again, pricing these phones so high and expecting to make any dent in Symbian's market share is dumb too.

[Kati Compton]

$699 gets you a quad-band GSM PalmOS 5 device with 23MB of RAM (stop snickering), Bluetooth, and SDIO slot that doesn't work with the SDIO WiFi card pa1mOne sells, a 640X480 camera and support for polyphonic ringtones. I'm giddy just reading the specs. :roll: Contrast that to an unlocked iMate PDA2K (http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=118304) that gets you Windows Mobile 2003SE, 128MB of RAM, 43MB of ROM file storage, Bluetooth, WiFi, a voice recorder, 640X480 camera and as well as a QWERTY keyboard for thumbjockies.
Yeah - I doubt I'd get the $700 Palm device. But I'm even LESS likely to get the $900 PDA2K (price based on your link). That's a lot of $!

[MikeUnwired]

The specs might now WOW us, but the Treos are doing pretty well in sales, which is ultimately where success or failure is decided in the market place.

I used a Treo 600 for a year and probably still would be if the screen had been higher resolution. Even with the OS drawbacks, I managed to do just fine most of the time with it as a one piece solution to PDA and phone.

[xxpinballxx]

Not sure where the prices are coming from. I just went to the palmonestore and ican order it with free shipping for my phone for 549.00.

I am thinking about doing it just to see what the other side of the fence has to offer against my mpx220.

[ddhsoftware]

Ed,

Just to clarify, your description of the Treo did not include the thumboard or voice record, which are both mentioned on the imate. And the screen on the Treo is awesome!

But to be really honest and truthful, this is the first Palm OS device that I've owned that crashes frequently and has lots of bugs in the OS. That's because last minute they decided to make the 23MB or RAM a Flash ROM based system (with another 10MB of RAM you don't see mentioned because of the way it does things). Truth be told, they totally ruined the device with this last minute change, and what could have been the best SmartPhone solution is actually quite disappointing to me.

I think the MDAIV is the PPC phone device to beat now anyway- that looks sweet!

[Ed@Brighthand]

Part of the reason is Sprint is leaving the PalmOS side of things to the Treo 600 and moving to the Windows Mobile based i600 for their dedicated smartphone offering.


I picked the i550 story up too, and ran an article on it this morning. This afternoon, my Sprint contact wrote me and, very politely, reamed me out. What she said was

Sprint is not putting an emphasis on any operating system over another. Sprint is committed to meeting the needs of consumers and business professionals by offering one of the most innovative device lineups in the wireless industry. As part of this commitment, we will continue to provide a variety of operating systems (both Palm and Windows Mobile), form factors and functionality for our devices that allow customers to choose the options that best meet their needs.

[whydidnt]

Not sure where the prices are coming from. I just went to the palmonestore and ican order it with free shipping for my phone for 549.00.

I am thinking about doing it just to see what the other side of the fence has to offer against my mpx220.

That price is for a locked version of the phone. If you want the unlocked GSM verison it's $699.00.

So Treo 650 users get to pick thier poison - get the locked verison that has a crippled blootooth stack (no DUN support) or a an unlocked version that is priced sky high, but inludes the full stack.

PALM1 could have won a lot of business and new users by doing this phone right. Instead they stopped short of a major upgrade and messed up the memory, while allowing the carriers to mess up an important feature (bluetooth).

I don't put much weight into Sprint's killing of the i-550. I imagine sales of it's predecssor were slow. Why throw good money after bad? Samsung is slow to bring these devices to market they typically are a generation behind by the time they are ready to be release. That's one reason, I'm not as excited as I would be about their rumoured WM2003SE slider phone.

[Ed Hansberry]

Ed,

Just to clarify, your description of the Treo did not include the thumboard or voice record, which are both mentioned on the imate. And the screen on the Treo is awesome!
I knew about the keyboard. I mentioned it for the PDA2K because it slides out and may not be obvious. Didn't know about the voice recorder. Thanks for the update. The T5 is what got rid of that, correct?
But to be really honest and truthful, this is the first Palm OS device that I've owned that crashes frequently and has lots of bugs in the OS. That's because last minute they decided to make the 23MB or RAM a Flash ROM based system (with another 10MB of RAM you don't see mentioned because of the way it does things). Truth be told, they totally ruined the device with this last minute change, and what could have been the best SmartPhone solution is actually quite disappointing to me.
I've seen numerous posts by Palm enthusiasts on the same issues. And the 23MB number is from Palm's website. 21MB forlmultilingual devices.[/quote]

[Ed Hansberry]

Part of the reason is Sprint is leaving the PalmOS side of things to the Treo 600 and moving to the Windows Mobile based i600 for their dedicated smartphone offering.


I picked the i550 story up too, and ran an article on it this morning. This afternoon, my Sprint contact wrote me and, very politely, reamed me out.
Ouch. So, are they or are they not dropping the PalmOS based i5xx for the WM based i6xx?

[Ed@Brighthand]

Ouch. So, are they or are they not dropping the PalmOS based i5xx for the WM based i6xx?
Apparently, that's not what's happening. Sprint is offering the Palm OS Treo 650 and the Windows Mobile SCH-i600, with no preference. They are letting users pick which one they prefer.

[Ed Hansberry]

Ouch. So, are they or are they not dropping the PalmOS based i5xx for the WM based i6xx?
Apparently, that's not what's happening. Sprint is offering the Palm OS Treo 650 and the Windows Mobile SCH-i600, with no preference. They are letting users pick which one they prefer.
Well, that is what I said - "Part of the reason is Sprint is leaving the PalmOS side of things to the Treo 600 and moving to the Windows Mobile based i600 for their dedicated smartphone offering." That is the truth, and doesn't indicate a preference at all, other than to the Treo 650 and Samsung i600 as their products of choice.

Just to clarify, your description of the Treo did not include the thumboard or voice record, which are both mentioned on the imate. And the screen on the Treo is awesome!
I knew about the keyboard. I mentioned it for the PDA2K because it slides out and may not be obvious. Didn't know about the voice recorder. Thanks for the update. The T5 is what got rid of that, correct?
Well, in fairness to me, I don't see that at http://www.palmone.com/us/products/smartphones/treo650/details.epl or at http://www.palmone.com/us/products/smartphones/treo650/treo650_gsmdsheet.pdf . So, either Palm isn't mentioning that feature in their docs or I am blind.

[sub_tex]

I don't put much weight into Sprint's killing of the i-550. I imagine sales of it's predecssor were slow.

Because it's price was rediculous.

It should have been $200, not $500. Heck, it was still $500 with the Treo 600 had been out for months!

[yslee]

I'd like to add that the price of US$699 is more in line with worldwide prices of the Treo 650. Just makes one wonder what the margin is really like for the Treo..

[twalk]

I'd like to add that the price of US$699 is more in line with worldwide prices of the Treo 650. Just makes one wonder what the margin is really like for the Treo..

Last year P1 sold around 3.5M PDAs and 1.5M treo 600s. The 600s made about 1/2 of all the revenue P1 made, and most of the profit. PDA sales are basically a break-even situation for them.