Is Palm’s upcoming Sprint GPS & WiFi Treo 800w a winner?
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According to the a number of community sites, a road show slide indicating Sprint will release a GPS & WiFi enabled Palm Treo 800w in July with a front facing qwerty keyboard was leaked. So we called Palm Friday. They would neither confirm nor deny the rumor. But we left the call with the distinct impression the company is returning to a more normal high end release schedule shortly.
We believe the rumored Treo 800w for Sprint may be an important product for Palm at a time the company’s revenues have been declining. Palm’s core customer base, well over a million “early adopters,” have been pining for an upgrade, especially as competing manufacturers have advanced their product lines.
Will this product return Palm to the lead in the convergence and specifications race and excite the firm’s core customers? In in a podcast, J. Edward Rutkowski (msmobiles.com), Mickey Papillon (Cell Phone Junkie) and Tadd Rosenfeld (Centro Site) explore this question. They discuss the rumored Treo 800w in context of high end smartphones presently available. They also cover the significance of the word “autonomous” when used in context of Palm’s GPS, and Microsoft’s rumored time line for Windows Mobile version releases, among other salient issues.
Topics include:
- If we could buy the whole world a Palm Treo 800w, would we? (Yes.)
- Why is Palm’s front-facing keyboard design so appealing?
- Palm’s Treo 800w will have autonomous GPS. What does “autonomous” mean?
- GPS performance comparison
- Software developer dumps Handango. Is Handango a good or evil company? (Tadd speaks well of them. Edward insists they’re evil.)
- What is a SlingBox thingy?
- Next iPhone-like HTC phone
- TapRoot releases HotSpot software for Windows Mobile that turns your WiFi enabled device into a hotspot
- When exactly is Windows Mobile 7 coming out?
- Tadd calls in from a loud place, eats a chicken sandwich and returns to looking after his grandparents midway through the podcast, causing Edward to get angry and act out in silly ways. Mickey patiently puts up with their tomfoolery.
Enjoy!
Related Links
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URL to RSS feed of this podcast (for your podcast catcher) is: http://x.msmobiles.com/portal/podcast.xml
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Filed under: Treo and Palm news
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Dawg…even I might like to have one of these!
Yes we’re pining… For A PALM OS ……. Not Windows
Sounds good with GPS and all that but I am also not too happy with Windows.
Lipstick on a pig is still a pig.
Windoze Mobile is still garbage for the most part (multitasking, better security and fonts are nice - but the rest is basically as buggy as it was many years ago).
Wake me up when the new PALM OS is out and debugged (probably when the Cubs are celebrating their second World Series win in a row).
Bluetooth 2, please!! (For listening to podcasts without tangle.) And yes, Palm OS.
cthompgh, you really are a nut…..WHAT DO YOU THINK THE W stands for at the end of Treo 800? it means WINDOWS
Treo 800W = Treo 800W(indows)
where as if it were a P at the end it would mean PALM
Treo 700p = Palm OS
Treo 700w = Windows Os
I hope they stop spending $$$ on the “W” and get back to the “P” while they still have a customer base. Palm OS + Treo would have been the iPhone if they did not get so side tracked. Will they listen? I hope so.
Just go to the forum here and look at the posts count for W vs P. Nuf said.
awwwwh I was going to ebay my Treo 755p, I did no research on this product. My 700 p is a better unit, T-800 p would have been nice, T-800 w, no thanks
We need a more stable Palm OS version. the 700p was a good start, but now needs a serious face lift. bill gates has enough of our money everywhere else. i purchased the asus eeepc a few weeks ago. what a simple little thing. works right out of the box. wifi finds access points in just seconds. why can’t palm just do that? i want my Palm OS, and i want it now.
another vote for a P.
Trurida18, get a clue.
P please
Already lost me. I’m no longer going to “early adapt” Palm. I’m tired of getting scammed with phones that crash so often that I sometimes go a whole day without realizing my phone has been off the whole time.
I have to agree with most posters, where’s the “P”? I was a die-hard Palm user and wouldn’t mind updating my 600 (yes it still works) to a new Palm with a refreshed OS. But I’m not going the Windows mobile route.
I was getting excited, till I noticed they left out the P.
Wifi, GPS and Palm, it was to good to be true.
Another one for P Please,
I love Palm / Treo cellphones, but with all my software being Palm OS based, a windows version doesn’t help me.
When will a Palm OS for Verizon be available?
P.S. To answer the question “Is Palm’s upcoming Sprint GPS & WiFi Treo 800w a winner?”
The answer is NO! It lacks the Palm OS.
From a hardware’s perspective, I’m not sure. How fast is the processor? How much RAM (user accessible), SDHC support?, how big is the screen, resolution, color depth, etc?
I have the 700p and my husbear has my old 600 (yes, it is also still working). I’d like to pass on my 700p to him and my 600 to my adopted Son (if he wants it). I can’t, though, till Palm/Treo has a winner for Verizon (755p is not worth a 2 year contract when upgrading from the 700p).
Another vote for a P version, please. W won’t cut it, but I’ll buy a P in a heartbeat.
my 700p? Yeah the most trusted.always palm
P in a heart beat sounds like the right message to send to Palm.
Another vote for an 800p.
I was all excited, again, when I saw news of a new model. And then, again, I was seriously let down when I saw it was Windows Mobile junk and not a Palm OS device.
This is NOT the way to keep me from jumping ship to a BlackBerry or iPhone!
As much as I hate to say it, palm is dead….All we hear are empty promises and the W word….
As much as I hate to say it, palm OS is like Latin, only spoken in the cathedrals of software past…Is Android the next hope, not sure, but I’m tired of the empty promises and the W word….
I’m an early adopter as well…Currently on my buggy 755p, and I’ve finally had enough. As soon as Apple comes out with the EVDO IPhone, I’m switching. R.I.P Palm.
I will believe it after it comes out and only then after it has been tested by us. But unless Palm finally realizes the Palm OS is what made them big. I guess I will be looking at Android and at Nokia. I have enough blue screens of death on wifes PC. Long live linux. hint hint HINT…. Hellooooooo. Any one at Palm have a brain???? I agree with Coffeeman!
Palm will never listen to the consumer, only what they think in their own little world, and its getting smaller. I will stick with my 600 and 650 (a down grade from the 600).
Palm should sell the Treo back to Handspring so they can make it good again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
I had to switch from my 600P to a 750W in order to sync with my network and MS Outlook in my business. It works great with my email, calendar, tasks and contacts so I have no problem with my Treo, the W and am now probably the only one up this early in the morning who is excited about the 800W!!!
W = waste of time…
Yes, so well put, lipstick on a pig is still a pig.
Wake us up when you get your act together and give us something worthwhile that ends in P, not @#$% W.
Sheesh.
Who cares? Windows Mobile 6 is better than Palm OS 5. Who knows when or if Palm will release a new Palm OS but in the meantime Windows Mobile is fine with me. I made the jump this winter to WM and have had no regrets. The damned thing never crashes, unlike my Treo 600, 650, and 680, all of which I still have (I use the 680 daily).
I’m using Windows Mobile and enjoying it.
Palm has been in a daze for some time, and to forget its Palm OS base proves it. Windows is a DOG. I’m not upgrading to this phone. Instead, I’m waiting for the iPhone to support carriers other than AT&T.
I hate to leave P after all these years, but P is doing nothing for us.