Comments on: Centro Could Be Headed to T-Mobile

Tero Kuittinen, an analyst for Avian Securities, is citing "operator sources" - which include Palm's CFO, Andy Brown in an article on Seeking Alpha - that indicate Palm is readying the GSM Centro not just for AT&T, but T-Mobile as well. Apparently the Centro's success has "caught the attention of rival operators". Reportedly, Palm are cagey about the possibility of a Verizon Centro: their relationship with the telco monolith may be "under stress", due in part to the long delays in getting the Verizon Treo 755p out the door.
Return to Story - Permalink

Article Comments

 (9 comments)

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PalmInfocenter is not responsible for them in any way.
Please Login or register here to add your comments.

Start a new Comment Down

So let us have them

Doo @ 1/21/2008 2:09:44 PM # Q
Come on Palm. I want one for AT&T already. I know Sprint has an exclusive deal, but name it something eles and give me one.

RE: So let us have them
TooMuch @ 1/21/2008 2:18:01 PM # Q
AT&T/Palm, I don't care what you name. Just get it out! :)

Reply to this comment
Reply to this comment

Something doesn't quite make sense in that article

hkklife @ 1/21/2008 3:10:44 PM # Q
"Palm is aiming to develop products that make multimedia and entertainment applications easy to access - expect a completely new menu structure and an application selection that emphasizes video, music and game downloads in addition to photo/video processing and messaging."

Now, how are we going to enjoy "video, music, and game downloads" in addition to "photo/video processing and messaging" if the keyboards and screens keep on shrinking to diminuitive levels? And battery capacities continue to erode so as not to even last through a full workday and an antiquated piece of tech like a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack on a smartphone (not to mention A2DP) continues to elude Palm!?!?!

It's nice to see some success from the Centro but let's not fool ourselves here. It's not enough to save the company if they continue to trot out mediocre new product at a glacial pace. And I think that between Palm bungling the 700p and whatever was the case for the 755p delay on Verizon, we've seen the last new Treo on Verizon. Or, at the very least, we've seen the final Garnet-based product on Verizon and we'll just see Verizon stocking the likes of the 800w and future WinMob Treos from here on out.

The Centro is nice for casual or teenage users, but it's basically just a bandaid that also happens to expose what most of the PIC faithful have been preaching for so long: Palm's Treo line is a one-trick, high-margin pony that's been underspec'd, overpriced and poorly supported since the moment the Treo 650 launched in '04 with huge NVFS bugs and too little RAM.

P.S. That was a nicely-written article and all but isn't it basically going in total contrast to what someone (Andy Brown, even?) said a few months back (SV, feel free to trot out an appropriate link) about Palm looking to downplay their hardware efforts in order to focus more on the UI/software/web services/server-side tweaks? And how do "me too" rebranded devices like the Treo 500v and its supposed "Wanda" successor fit in with providing differentiated hardware? Differentiated from BlackBerry styling, yes. But differentiated from iPhone? No, the PIC/TC/BH faithful have been asking for a large-screened, iPhone-esque Treo ever since 2003!!

P.P.S. I STILL think Palm is going to basically phase out "Treo" for Garnet/PLinux-based devices and go the dual route of WinMob for all Treos and leave Centros running all versions of POS for the consumer/small biz market.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: Something doesn't quite make sense in that article
LiveFaith @ 1/21/2008 3:27:43 PM # Q
** No, the PIC/TC/BH faithful have been asking for a large-screened, iPhone-esque Treo ever since 2003!! **

Yep.

Pat Horne

RE: Something doesn't quite make sense in that article
robera @ 1/21/2008 4:07:23 PM # Q
I am already desperated waiting for a large-screened Treo. For me a TX with cellphone has the best size for multimedia related applications.

RE: Something doesn't quite make sense in that article
DarthRepublican @ 1/23/2008 2:38:59 AM # Q
I just want a smaller PDA/Google Maps viewer/Bluetooth modem for my Palm TX. A GSM Centro would do nicely in that regard.

You keep harping on the 2.5mm headphone jack but anyone who has tried to stick their standard l-shaped 3.5mm headphones into the iPhone's recessed jack would realize that every device has its little gotchas. A quick comparison between my 5.5G iPod and my Treo 680 shows that both have screens of about the same width and they both show nice, sharp, watchable video images. The new iPod Nano has a screen that is even smaller than that of the Centro and is also a usable video player. And I say this not as a teenager with perfect eyesight but as an almost thirty-seven year old man who has worn glasses since he was ten. Battery life is a concern but that's why the Treo and Centro's battery is removable.

While I'd much rather watch movies on my Palm TX, the iPod, Treo, and Centro will do fine in a pinch when I just have to watch "Once More With Feeling" one more time.

I think that a GSM Centro would make a great upgrade to my Treo 680. Now we can all speculate about our dream device, be it a Palm TX2 with 4GB of memory, a LifeDrive with a 30GB hard drive, or a Treo with a 320x480 screen. But what Palm really needs to do is put a decent multimedia software and file management suite on it. Pocket Tunes and Kinoma is a good start, a real stand alone video player with broad codec support like TCPMP is the missing piece of the puzzle. And even a simple file manager like one on the LifeDrive and Drive Mode would be greatly appreciated.

Palm's hardware works quite well for me these days but its out of the box software is lacking.

Reply to this comment

WiFi and UMA

WareW01f @ 1/25/2008 10:25:38 AM # Q
Not to add to the broken record whine on Palm and WiFi, but seriously, if Palm would get WiFi into a unit and get UMA support on there, T-Mo would snag it in a heartbeat. From what I here that's the main reason that T-Mo dropped the Treo to begin with.

If Nokia can slam UMA into a S40 phone, I think Palm should be able to manage... but then they are *still* struggling with native A2DP...

If they pull the $50 think on the T-Mo side, I'd prolly recommend it to people. T-Mo's current lack of 3G (get a move on already!) works with Palms road map. :D

Reply to this comment

The CFO essentially said 'No Centro for T-Mobile USA'

SeldomVisitor @ 2/5/2008 11:40:06 AM # Q
Yesterday the CFO spoke at a financial conference. During that talk (mostly Q&A) he essentially repeated a mention of T-Mobile but for SURE this time it was in the context of international, not US, customers. He went on to say that T-Mobile USA was not a current customer.

Reply to this comment
Start a New Comment Thread Top

Account

Register Register | Login Log in
user:
pass: