CDMA Treo Pro Spotted at DSL Reports

Rumor: In what should be taken with a rather large grain of salt, some nevertheless intriguing information concerning the rumored CDMA version of the Treo Pro has appeared in the logs on DSL Reports' Mobile speed test site.

WMExperts has pointed out the presence of multiple entries of a "Treo 850e" running Windows Mobile and Internet Explorer Mobile 6.0 on the Sprint EVDO network. While the "Treo 850" model number might sound suspect, Palm has often used dual nomenclature on their past devices: the Centro is also the Treo 690, the Tungsten T was the m550 and the Zire is the m150, just to name a few. In addition, the extremely high throughput result of 1060 kbps is certainly indicative of a higher speed EVDO Rev. 0 or Rev. A device.

While it's always possible, and quite trivial, for some enterprising prankster to concoct a false browser user agent string, several pieces of information lend this mythical device spotting a little bit of credibility. Coincidentally, the Treo 800w was "outed" earlier this year in similar fashion, approximately two months prior to its actual release.

While Palm has traditionally released separate CDMA & GSM handsets, the lackluster response to Palm's most recent CDMA handset, the Treo 800w, may have convinced them to use the much more exciting Treo Pro design as their next CDMA release. With HTC at the helm as Palm's ODM partner for the Treo Pro, it's also possible that a CDMA version has been quickly engineered using HTC's considerable expertise fashioning both GSM and CDMA handsets.

And for the Verizon users out there anxious seeing if Sprint will debut yet another Palm device, no tangible signs have appeared of a Verizon version of either the 800w or the Treo Pro, despite nearly 16 months of rumors for the former.