Handspring Releases Treo Mail Beta

Posted By: Ed Monday, March 18, 2002 11:34:38 AM

Handspring has just released a beta version of Treo Mail, its new wireless email service that provides access to desktop email. It can forward email from a PC to the Treo and back. This beta software is available now for free. Handspring expects to begin selling subscriptions for the commercial version of Treo Mail in mid-2002.

Treo Mail Screenshot Treo Mail is available in two versions. Treo Mail Corporate Edition is for an individual business user to access a Microsoft Outlook/Exchange or POP3 email account behind a corporate firewall. Treo Mail Internet Edition is for consumers using a personal POP3 email account offered by a service provider such as Earthlink, Yahoo!, or AT&T Worldnet.

The Treo Mail service is made up of handheld software, PC desktop software (for Corporate Edition users), and a Service Operations Center that stores and forwards messages when the communicator is off or out of coverage.

With the Corporate Edition, the desktop software is necessary for the service to work. Therefore, the computer must be turned on and connected to the network or email will not be delivered to the Treo.

The Corporate Edition has been designed to integrate with Microsoft Outlook/Exchange. Users can forward messages with attachments from the Treo. Read/unread status and deletions from on the handheld are reflected on the desktop computer.

Treo Mail will work only on the Treo. The rocker switch and scroll buttons can be used to toggle through and select messages to read using one hand and without opening the flip lid. Messages are formatted to fit Treo's screen. Users can directly address messages from the PhoneBook, similar to the SMS application already available on the Treo.

It has been designed to help cut down on the amount of bandwidth used. Filters may be set to to control which messages are forwarded to the Treo. Forwarded emails can be truncated to save memory and messages are compressed by up to one third.

It offers 128-bit SSL strong encryption so that email is delivered to and from the Treo securely. Email is secure in transit between Treo and the Treo Mail Service Operations Center, where it is cached in encrypted form, and then delivered to a Corporate Edition customer's PC. Secure access is built in; it does not require a VPN or direct dial into a corporate LAN.

The back-end is provided by Visto.

The Treo line is currently made up of two smartphones. The Treo 180 has a built-in keyboard like the Blackberry pager and no Graffiti area. The other model, the Treo 180g, relies on the traditional Graffiti for text input.. Both are available now for $400.

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nice

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 11:46:21 AM #
good work

RE: nice
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 11:48:41 AM #
Wonder if it will work with the VisorPhone or is it a Treo only software. I know it is called "Treo Mail" but why would they develop a software for one Palm Device. They could make more money offering to other devices with wireless access.

RTA
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 12:02:42 PM #
RTA = Read the Article

"Treo Mail will work only on the Treo."

TMWWOOTT
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 5:22:29 AM #
TMWWOOTT = Treo Mail will work only on the Treo

Uses airtime minutes!

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 12:15:06 PM #
Treo Mail uses airtime minutes to deliver your e-mail. Seems like a pretty lame (and potentially expensive) system. Why not offer a flat-rate "unlimited" e-mail delivery plan, like Palm and Blackberry?

RE: Uses airtime minutes!
PIC mobile user @ 3/18/2002 12:26:02 PM #
Yes, the current setup is uninspired, but the treo is supposedly going to be upgradeable to gprs (the gsm packet-based data network which bills by data throughput not time). We shall see. GPRS is also turning out to be somewhat expensive, as you've got to watch how much you can receive, compared to now when you can burn through all those night & weekend minutrs with impunity.
RE: Uses airtime minutes!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 12:35:16 PM #
If GPRS on the Treo were coming soon, wouldn't Handspring have held off on this awkward Treo Mail system? Maybe this means GPRS on the Treo isn't going to be available for a long time to come. Of course, if you want a truly always-on e-mail system for a flat monthly fee that uses GPRS, you could get the new Blackberry phone, which promises to be available within a couple of weeks.

RE: Uses airtime minutes!
cyruski @ 3/18/2002 1:58:39 PM #
gprs? expensive? how come?

here, in Turkey, in the most expensive tariff, we pay $0.04 for every 10 kilobytes transferred.

cyruski!

Expensive GPRS
big_raji @ 3/18/2002 3:54:45 PM #
Omigod! In Canada, it's $5 for 150kb.

That's about $0.35 per 10kb. Almost 10 times your amount.

Dammit.


---
If you sing in french while hopping on one foot, the evil birds won't come out of your bathroom mirror.

RE: Uses airtime minutes!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 6:23:04 PM #
It will get cheaper in Canada over time. WSe are being gouged in Canada becuase the service is new. In Turkey and European, GPRS has been around for more time and is more ubiquitious.

RE: Uses airtime minutes!
fkclo @ 3/19/2002 3:25:38 AM #
Here in Hong Kong airtime is dirt cheap. Some service providers offer up to 888 minutes for as low as USD20. So we use our mobile more than any land line numbers.

GPRS is rather expensive, comparatively.

Francis Lo, HKG

RE: Uses airtime minutes!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 3:54:03 AM #
GPRS .. hmmm when I have a Bluetooth PDA and Phone maybe. Right now I get 50 minutes free off peak every day which I use for Data. And yes it is often cheaper to use a mobile than a land line phone.

why not give this software for free

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 12:23:16 PM #
Doesn't the Palm i705 come with this same basic software for free? Am I missing something? Why doesn't this software come with the treo?

RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 2:03:59 PM #
The difference is that the Treo is NOT always-on like the i705. The cool thing about Treo Mail is that you can get SMS messages sent to your phone to let you know of new mail. Then you can either log in to your email box on the Treo or walk over to your computer and check your mail. I plan on doing the second and I like it that way.

I think the reason that Handspring is going to charge is that they will do the checking for you. In other words, they check your email account and then let you know. This is different from the i705 because it has its own email address. When you forward mail to the i705 address is comes right in, i.e. always-on.

If you want email forwarded to your Treo you need the corporate version or you have to forward your email to the email address of the phone and they'll come in as SMS messages.

This will probably all change when GPRS works on the Treo. The only bad thing is that you can only do one at a time, voice or data, not bother. One good thing is that apparently you can suspend the data call and answer the voice and then go back to the data as if nothing happened.

Handspring is trying to compete with the i705 and Blackberry, but their software isn't quite there yet. They are behind the eight ball and trying to keep things going.

Joe

RE: why not give this software for free - sorry!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 2:06:47 PM #
multimail deluxe (the version on the i705) was written specifcally for the i705. It wont work on other currently released devices.

RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 2:17:24 PM #
Someone else wrote: "I think the reason that Handspring is going to charge is that they will do the checking for you. In other words, they check your email account and then let you know. This is different from the i705 because it has its own email address."

But, this isn't entirely accurate. With the Palm service, you could also have any e-mail account forwarded to your @palm.com account, thereby receiving all of your e-mail all of the time (that is, you receive an e-mail when it's sent, not when the device retrieves e-mail at a preset time). Treo Mail apparently doesn't allow this (that is, it doesn't deliver e-mail all of the time).

RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 3:05:07 PM #
Ed, can you compare the two for us?

RE: why not give this software for free
Scott @ 3/18/2002 3:11:04 PM #
It's worth noting that Palm doesn't give you anything for free with the i705. Remember, you're paying Palm a monthly fee. Handspring's problem is that they only make their money on initial sales of the Treo. There's no ongoing income after that. Here, they're trying to get a piece of that pie. But because you pay per voice minute in addition to whatever annual fee Handspring is planning to charge, Palm's offering is much better, IMO.

Scott

RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 3:58:10 PM #
coz the company is almost bankrupt. they need as much $$$$ they can get from the people who already spent $500/$450 on treos.

RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 5:05:59 PM #
Someone else wrote: "But because you pay per voice minute in addition to whatever annual fee Handspring is planning to charge, Palm's offering is much better, IMO."

I agree. Unfortunately, with Palm you can't get phone service in the same device or an integrated keyboard. Hey, I've got an idea: Maybe Palm should sell its service for use on the Treo!


RE: why not give this software for free
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/18/2002 6:27:26 PM #
Its not free because someone got to pay to maintain the servers that are doing the leg work. There is only so far the price of the Treo will get ya. I doubt that Handspring will be making any money on this. Remember that Visto gets a big cut cuz they provide the servers.

Treo Cradle

crustyedgeofinnovation @ 3/18/2002 9:30:43 PM #
Aren't they also offering a cradle for the treo device too...to me it would seem that they should have initially sold the treo with a cradle included, but i guess they can make more money this way, which is a good thing for handspring because their financials aren't too good, but i like the company.

RE: Treo Cradle
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 1:20:04 AM #
I think the Treo will save Handspring. The cable is better than a cradle because its more mobile. I am glad that they ship a cable instead of a crade with the device.

Can it read HTML Mail?

I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 3:13:51 AM #
I need the feature very much.
Anybody knows that? Thanx

Only for North America ?!

fkclo @ 3/19/2002 3:21:39 AM #
Strange to learn (from Treo Mail FAQ at Handspring's site) that Treo Mail is for N.A. customers for now, despite the fact that it made its debut in Asia and Europe.

Is there is mismatch in Handspring strategy ?

Francis Lo, HKG

RE: Only for North America ?!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 5:18:17 AM #
Damn Francis Lo, you totally ruined Handspring's strategy, they want to make everybody feel special, now people in north America won't feel as special now ...

RE: Only for North America ?!
fkclo @ 3/19/2002 5:25:55 AM #
I thought Handspring has the right strategy when it decided to launch Treo first in Asia ( Hong Kong, then Singapore), where the mobile penetration rate is extremely high and where people switch mobile models like fashion. So, instead of fighting with i705 and the "voice enabled Blackberry", they have a niche unreachable by the wireless Palm and RIM. Great market segmentation strategy, I guess.

You may be right that Handspring may want to catch up on its NA market given the head start of i705. The Treo Mail seems an attractive "best of both worlds" offer to those who are still sitting on the fence, especially with its corporate edition that integrates with MS Exchange Server. at a time just before the PocketPC enabled phones start to hit the market. But then, it is leaving its customers in Asia and Europe in the cold, and that does not make sense since GPRS will be picking up momentum much sooner than the North American market.

Is there any technical limitation that may confine Treo Mail to North America ?


Francis Lo, HKG

RE: Only for North America ?!
I.M. Anonymous @ 3/19/2002 5:48:11 AM #
Probably because the ancient Mobile phone network we got here. (except LA and NY maybe)

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