FCC Hints to Upcoming Treos in 2008

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:14:03 AM

Centro in hand TreoCentral forum member Malatesta has taken it upon himself to do the heavy lifting of persusing the extensive FCC archives and posted the fruit of some extensive analysis of Palm’s recent FCC filings. Recently declassified documents contain some vague references to Palm models currently in development and help to shed some light on what has become a very uncertain period for future Palm devices. As usual, all of this information combines a great deal of speculation based largely on a very small amount of official information and earlier rumors and spy photographs. The information contained within should be treated only as speculation and conjecture, not an actual Palm product roadmap. Read on for the details.

The info turns up some interesting details, with four different Palm devices set to launch or having just been launched:

Codename / Possible Product Name

Otto / Treo 500w

Notes: Presumably an Americanized, quad-band version of the Treo 500v released for Vodafone in October. We reported on this news back in September and it would appear that a suitable launch date for the Treo500 is drawing near. Presumably Palm was likely waiting for the Treo 750's WM6 update to be released before unleashing the cheaper, more multimedia-savvy Treo 500 to market.

The Treo 500 is Palm's first "outsourced" smartphone and Asus (not HTC as speculated earlier) is indeed the ODM.

"Gryphon/Gandalf" / "Palm Centro/Treo 690"

Notes: The Sprint version of the Palm Centro is already in full release. However, Palm could be readying a "generic" version of the same device for other CDMA carriers such as Alltel, Telus, and Verizon bearing the Treo 690 moniker.

Gnome / Treo 685

Notes: This is the long-rumored GSM version of the Centro, with a hands-on report previously covered in our earlier report here and almost certainly Palm's first 2008 release. The 685 is expected to be avaialbe in the USA on the AT&T GSM network in addition to a slew of GSM carriers globally. This Treo may have the dubious distinction of being the final Garnet-powered device. With this modem bearing "685" nomenclature and (mostly) superior specs, it would also seem to be a not-so-subtle sign that the current Treo 680 is set for termination.

Zeppelin / Treo 800w

Notes: If the long-churning rumor mill is to be believed, this will be Palm’s new flagship device with a 400mhz CPU and 256mb RAM. It will also be Palm’s first EVDO REV-A handset and the first Treo with integrated wi-fi. The phone has been covered several times by PIC and would seem to be a safe bet for release on both Verizon and Sprint sometime in the first quarter of ’08 or possibly early in Q2 at the latest. According to Maltestra's post of the text of e-mail correspondence between Palm Inc. staff and FCC officials, as of October the 800w was still slated to have both wi-fi and EVDO Rev.A, though other posts claiming to be from a Sprint insider have stated that Sprint wants Palm to jettison the wi-fi radio.

Last week's announcement of an unspecified device's failure to pass Verizon’s certification tests most likely pointed to the older Treo 755p, not one of the above devices.

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