Palm Treo 700w Now Available from Verizon

Posted By: Ryan on Wednesday, January 04, 2006 3:50:41 PM

Palm and Verizon today announced the Palm Treo 700w smartphone goes on sale tomorrow, January 5th. The Treo 700w smartphone is the first Treo smartphone to run the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. It is also the first Treo to operate on Verizon's high speed EV-DO data network.

The Palm Treo 700w combines a mobile phone with high-speed wireless data access to email and business applications. The newest member of the Treo family builds on the award-winning design of the Treo 600 and Treo 650 smartphones and takes advantage of Windows Mobile 5.0, offering Microsoft Office applications for Windows Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile and Windows Media Player Mobile; as well as direct access to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 for mobile access to information.

The new smartphone delivers a unique suite of software enhancements on top of Windows Mobile that includes the following:

Today Screen enhancements, which feature the ability to “dial by name” with a few keystrokes on the keyboard, perform a web search directly from the Today Screen and perform one-touch dialing with personalized photo speed dials;
Ability to manage a call directly from the Today Screen and stay on top of voicemail with on-screen, VCR-like icons, such as rewind, delete and fast-forward controls for easy navigation; and
Ability to ignore a call and quickly compose a text message such as “In a meeting” or “Can’t talk right now” by selecting the “Ignore with text” option from the incoming-call screen.

Palm Treo 700w smartphone Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) BroadbandAccess network gives customers a fast, convenient way to conduct business while providing employees the speeds required to work efficiently outside the office. Today, about half the U.S. population, in more than 1,180 major metropolitan markets across the nation, can get average download speeds of 400-700 kilobits per second.

“We are ushering in a new era of mobile solutions that provide access to email, Microsoft Office applications and many other functions that extend the value of the PC,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation. “Businesses worldwide are using mobile devices to increase their competitive advantage, and they need solutions that are scalable, low-cost, and easy to deploy. The Treo 700w showcases the dynamic blend of Palm’s innovative design, Verizon Wireless’s EV-DO network, and the power of Windows Mobile software to connect professionals to their critical information on the go.”

“Customers have long been asking for a Palm Treo smartphone on the Windows platform, and we’re thrilled to say it’s here on the Verizon Wireless network,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “The Treo 700w smartphone is powerful, flexible and easy to use, while also being enterprise grade right out of the box.”

Some of the features of the Treo 700w:

312 MHz Intel XScale processor
240x240 pixel TFT screen
128MB of memory and 60MB of dedicated user storage
1.3-megapixel digital camera for images and videos
Integrated Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology Expansion card slot (SD, SDIO, and MultiMediaCard compatible)
Removable battery and non-volatile memory
Voice Command for voice dialing
Ability to send and receive email from multiple corporate and personal email accounts, with built-in support for Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, and other POP3 and IMAP accounts
On-device access to Microsoft Office Word Mobile, Office Excel Mobile and Office PowerPoint Mobile for viewing, editing and creating Word and Excel Mobile documents, as well as viewing PowerPoint Mobile presentations. In addition, with Picsel PDF viewer (included on installation CD), customers can view PDF documents
Unified messaging application, including email, SMS and MMS
Support for Wireless Sync to provide the convenience of push email and easy access to personal information-management tools, such as contacts and calendar, as well as enterprise tools, such as device management and file synchronization.

The Palm Treo 700w smartphone from Verizon Wireless is available for $399.99 after $100 instant rebate with a two-year service agreement when accompanied by a voice plan of $39.99 or higher and an unlimited PDA/smartphone data plan. The Treo 700w is available at the 1,900 Verizon Wireless Communications Stores, Verizon Wireless Communications Stores at Circuit City, or on the web.

Enterprise customers are encouraged to contact their Verizon Wireless Business Specialist at 800-VZW-4BIZ.

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Better than expected (on paper)

hkklife @ 1/4/2006 4:11:21 PM #

128mb!! NICE! BT 1.2 is welcome too. Basically, it's the TX hardware with a few bells'n whistles thrown in.

Of course, I'll wait for the 700p. Still, this 'un today and the Garmin news from yesterday makes for a nice 1-2 punch to kick off the new year.

I wish Verizon would knock the Treo 650 waaaay down in price to clear 'em out. I'm guessing the 650 is the final POS Treo we'll see on Verizon. Sprint seems to be much more "receptive" to POS than Verizon or T-Mobile.

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

RE: Better than expected (on paper)

fishtastic @ 1/4/2006 10:55:56 PM #

Is it my imagination or is the Treo line getting uglier?

Fish

RE: Better than expected (on paper)

LiveFaith @ 1/5/2006 9:36:36 AM #

This whole thing it photoshop!!!

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

Unified Messaging

freakout @ 1/4/2006 4:33:37 PM #

Intriguing. Email looks to be integrated into the 700w's version of the Messaging app. Does this mean the same is going to happen with the 700p? Might we be saying goodbye to Versamail?

And with the two 700 models having seeming to be virtually identical, is the 700p going to get 128mb of RAM too?

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

RE: Unified Messaging

hkklife @ 1/4/2006 4:45:39 PM #

According to the reports over on TreoCentral, the 700p runs FrankenGarnet 5.4.7 and does not have a megapixel camera. They just said it has radio & RAM updates ove the 650.

I predict the 700p will have 64mb RAM, the same VGA camera as the 650, EVDO, Garnet 5.4.9 and the "new" button styling of the 700w.

Palm will intentionally keep the 700p a bit less feature-rich than the 700w in order to bring it in at a lower MSRP *and* to detract from the 700p's clear resolution advantage over its Windows brother.

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

RE: Unified Messaging

joad @ 1/4/2006 4:54:27 PM #

128MB RAM... whoa, I guess Palm decided that 16-22MB of RAM really WAS ridiculously low ... (finally).

I hope hhklife's predictions are wrong that Palm will now be intentionally crippling the PalmOS versions of the Treo compared to the WinceMob atrocity. But maybe in making the deal with M$ they were forced to agree to something along those lines?

As for the marginally crappy camera, with such little internal memory you can't put many pics into the address book anyhow - the files might as well be as small as possible.

Lots of the rumours were wrong on the final specs of the 700w. Hopefully the real 700p specs are also much better than we fear.

RE: Unified Messaging

hkklife @ 1/4/2006 5:19:46 PM #

joad;

First of all, Solitaire IS still there. Look on Palm's bundled software list on their site.

Secondly, I hope I am wrong too with my predicted specs. But you are about as cynnical as anyone else here on PIC, aren't you? You should expect for Palm to cut corners whenever possible. I am honestly stunned by the strong featureset of the 700w. Aside from the feeble screen resolution and no built-in Wi-Fi (flash on the camera'd be nice too!), this thing is pretty much loaded, especially by standard Palm specs.

I figure the reasons for possibly neutering the 700p are two-fold.
#1: M$ subsidized the 700w so heavily that Palm could put plenty of $ into the hardware and still make a mint. Either that or M$ INSISTED on a strong featureset.
#2: Palm had to, as you said, agree with M$ to intentionally cripple the 700P so it'd be seen as the "lesser" of the two. I'd imagine this is similar to how Palm agreed to cripple the BT on their latest handhelds in order to keep from upsetting Verizon during the 700W exclusivity wooing process.

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

RE: Unified Messaging

AdamaDBrown @ 1/4/2006 5:20:02 PM #

Freakout, the Messaging app is default WM5 equipment, so I wouldn't expect any significant change in the Palm equivalent.

By the way, the 128 MB is flash, which is shared between storage and the OS. According to the existing specs, it's more like 60 MB free. Still not bad, but not 128 MB.

RE: Unified Messaging

freakout @ 1/4/2006 5:28:45 PM #

If Palm *does* cripple the 700p, it's a very, very ominous sign for future PalmOS devices. But wouldn't the other carriers get rather snippy if Verizon gets this flashy, high-spec device while they get a reheated 650?

Hopefully, Palm will see value in keeping the devices on an equal footing and not pissing off their small but dedicated Treo fanbase. (ignores howls of laughter from all the cynics around here :P )

If I don't get a better camera in the next one, I for one won't be upgrading. What would be the point? Really, the only thing that's preventing my 650 from being a replacement for *everything* is the crappy camera.

If they don't provide a visible, tangible improvement over the 650, then no-one will upgrade. The 650 was really just an evolutionary upgrade, but damn, that screen sure was pretty compared to the last model...

Similarly, there'll need to be something that current 650 users can look at and lust after. Not just under-the-hood improvements, but something we can use and see too.

End ramble.

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

RE: Unified Messaging

rsc1000 @ 1/5/2006 2:57:06 PM #

>> Really, the only thing that's preventing my 650 from being a replacement for *everything* is the crappy camera.

Wow - these things are really subjective i guess!
I think most would say that the things that keep the treo 650 from being perfect are:
- stability / compatibilty issues
- freakishly low memory (c'mon - this one completely outranks the low-res camera!)
- lack of wifi
- no EVDO/UMTS (3G)

...lets fix / omprove the core stuff first. A better camerta would be nice though.

RE: Unified Messaging

freakout @ 1/5/2006 4:33:40 PM #

"stability / compatibilty issues"

I won't deny that these exist, but (at least for me) they're certainly not the disaster that online forums occasionally make them out to be. Bottom line: I can live with a 20sec soft reset every day or two. My 650 is very nicely stable and has handled everything I've asked it to do, with great aplomb.

"freakishly low memory (c'mon - this one completely outranks the low-res camera!)"

Actually, this one's on the bottom of my list. I've got a 2gig SD card and most stuff is stored on that - 9mb still free on the device. It would be *nice* to have more internal memory, but I'd rather have cheaper SD cards, or even a second SD slot.

"lack of wifi"

Don't need it. Don't really want it either - it would mean extra price and a shorter battery life. Compatibility with the SDIO Wi-Fi card would be nice though for people who want the option. It looks the the 700 models will rectify this.

"no EVDO/UMTS (3G)"

Again, the 700 series will fix this.

Anyhoo, like you said - these things are really subjective ;)

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

Surur @ 1/4/2006 4:47:14 PM #

It has been confirmed on a production unit.

32MB RAM, 13 MB free after boot.

http://tinypic.com/jpflu1.jpg
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?p=6485809#post6485809

So much for the efficiency of the POS being why POS devices have so little ram. They were just stingy all along.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

hkklife @ 1/4/2006 5:01:37 PM #

Surur;

Palm.com has already been updated for the 700w

memory
128MB (60MB user accessible) non-volatile

I am reading it here now with my own eyes....60mb isn't stunning but it's a huge improvement over ~23mb or whatever the 650 had available at launch!

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

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

Surur @ 1/4/2006 5:12:00 PM #

Thats 60 Mb user accessible storage. They never say how much actual RAM is accessible in any of their devices, but for most POS devices its between 4 and 16 MB. Who cared about storage if you cant load or run your software?

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

joad @ 1/4/2006 5:12:03 PM #

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700w/specs.epl

"memory 128MB (60MB user accessible) non-volatile"

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

hkklife @ 1/4/2006 5:16:35 PM #

Am I seeing double here? LOL!

Surur do you mean the heap size in most Palm devices? That varies from model to model. The T3 went as high as 12mb of heap and most of the "better" OS5 models had 8mb. I think the new TX has 5mb. No Palm that I can recall right now ever had 16mb of heap memory.

Is there anything like UDMH for WinMob devices?

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

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

Surur @ 1/4/2006 5:21:28 PM #

UDMH is about running software from places other than built-in storage, isn't it? Thats already standard on WM. The problem is the low "heap size" in WM. It wont be enough to run many large programs at the same time, or load many large web pages in Netfront for example. With conservative use (e.g. for a business user) it will probably be OK. Also by reducing the number of start-up software (exactly the same as in windows) you can increase the RAM available after boot.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

freakout @ 1/4/2006 5:43:38 PM #

UDMH is a hack that alters the heap size on the fly, depending on how much the app needs. You can set a preset amount of memory to put aside or have it automatically adjust. It's essential for games like zDoom or Quake.

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

Surur @ 1/4/2006 5:59:57 PM #

WM5 does not do that kind of memory management. It sounds a bit like the slider in WM2003SE.

Did you know the palmaddict.typepad.com web page when loaded is a whole 24 MB big? The Treo 700 will just die if anyone tried to load it.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

LiveFaith @ 1/5/2006 9:37:52 AM #

Leave it to M$ to require a Cray Supercomputer on chip just to make their bloatware surf web pages.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

AdamaDBrown @ 1/5/2006 12:52:08 PM #

24 MB is insanely huge. A guy did a study of mobile web browsers, and found out that the average page takes 800K to 1.5 MB of RAM to load.

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

hkklife @ 1/5/2006 2:52:54 PM #

A better question is this, Surur:

Why would anyone want to bother with the dammed rah-rah pompom waving, head-in-the-sand nature of PalmAddicts? (No, I am not being a crass America-I have nothing against Sammy & co. personally)

If they didn't have so many pictures of kittens & redundant stock images of old handhelds their page wouldn't end up being 24mb! It's more of an endlessly scrolling blog than an actual mobile news site anyway. They should have a text-only "mobile" version of it anyway like TreoCentral & PIC have.

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

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

rsc1000 @ 1/5/2006 3:09:10 PM #

>>Did you know the palmaddict.typepad.com web page when loaded is a whole 24 MB big?

What are you talking about exactly? maybe i'm missing something but when i load palmaddict.typepad.com and check properties it shows 238k (or 238872bytes). Most websites are significantly less than a meg (sure there are lots of exceptions but the average is a fewhundred KB at best).

RE: Only 32 MB RAM (not 60) Palm is stingy.

Surur @ 1/5/2006 3:58:26 PM #

If you load a page the images get decompressed, taking up ram. On your desktop, look at your free ram and swap ram (in the task manager). Load palmaddicts and see how much RAM it uses. Even better try loading it (with images on) on your Palm.

I actually like PalmAddicts. After the Treo 700w was announced the have become a lot more cosmopolitan in the devices and OS's they cover. They still Palm biased, but they are very regularly updated, so you often read news there first. I sometimes wonder whether they have more " Associate Writers" than actual readers. Their forums are certainly empty enough.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

WIFI!

Slam @ 1/4/2006 5:04:30 PM #

Sure its an add-on card,
Sure its only 802.11b,
Sure its only WEP,
Sure it has no memory,
BUT at least they have one available for the Treo 700W.

See the accessories available for T7W...

Good sign of things to come. We can only hope.

RE: WIFI!

Slam @ 1/4/2006 5:20:49 PM #

And this card is being sold as compatible with the Treo 700 with better features...

http://www.socketcom.com/product/WL6207-600.asp?View=Specs

hopefully there will be one with memory...

NO SOLITAIRE?!??

joad @ 1/4/2006 5:14:43 PM #

RE: NO SOLITAIRE?!??

LiveFaith @ 1/4/2006 5:38:56 PM #

Quit whining when Palm has finally delivered! They finally replaced Grafitti 2!!! :-D

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: NO SOLITAIRE?!??

KultiVator @ 1/4/2006 6:39:03 PM #

Yes - and they've fixed the clipboard limit... by re-purposing some of the transistors they saved by only giving the 700w a 240x240 display!

Progress huh?

KultiVator

RE: NO SOLITAIRE?!??

LiveFaith @ 1/5/2006 9:39:35 AM #

What fun is a Palm without the clipboard limit! It'll never sell.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

How Long???

KultiVator @ 1/4/2006 5:30:43 PM #

So the burning question has to be... how long until we expect to see the Treo700p on sale?

April 2006?

Fingers crossed for a spec that will pleasantly surprise us all and short-circuit all the thoughts about MS negotiating duff specs (for the 700p) into the 700W contract. Palm has negotiated duff specs on its handhelds for the past few years **without** any help from Mr Gates!

KultiVator

RE: How Long???

freakout @ 1/4/2006 5:40:24 PM #

Hopefully, there will be some substantial, demonstratable improvements over the 650. Otherwise, why will their already happy users upgrade?

As you say, fingers crossed....

Tim Carroll
Your friendly customer service robot
(and big Treo fan)

RE: How Long???

SeldomVisitor @ 1/4/2006 5:45:53 PM #

Actually, the REAL burning question is:

== How long until the TREO 700W is actually shipping in quantity to end customers?

We're talking PALM here, right?

"Available" doesn't mean what you and I would expect nor ever has with HAND/PLMO/PALM.

RE: How Long???

LiveFaith @ 1/4/2006 6:03:08 PM #

>Actually, the REAL burning question is: == How long until the TREO 700W is actually shipping in quantity to end customers?

Why on earth is that question burning? Seems more like a little warm at best. I mean how many units are you actually trying to buy anyway?

BTW, somebody with the same username posted this comment on the Jan. 5th 700w story:

At least ya labeled the article 'Rumor'...

????

Palm's got it, VZW announces it, the guy over at HoFo / TC picked one up at the VZW store and posted pix. Does it take a Kenworth + 53' box trailer load over at WalMart before it's actually real?

I'm confused.

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: How Long???

SeldomVisitor @ 1/4/2006 6:12:15 PM #

Huh?

The Daaay the Muuuuuusic Died!

LiveFaith @ 1/4/2006 5:49:26 PM #

Will January 4th forever stand in imfamy as the day that The Empire took us hostage?

... and the were singing bye bye Miss American Pie (Palm OS), drove my Chevy (Cobalt) to the levey, but the levey was dry (licensees). Them good ole boys (Yankowski & Nagel) were drinking whisky & rye and singin' this'll be the day that I die. ... the day the muuuuuusic died. : - o

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: The Daaay the Muuuuuusic Died!

Surur @ 1/4/2006 6:09:04 PM #

Depends how buggy it is. If it has the other WM5 problems (slow, Activesync meltdown and not waking from suspend) then POS has nothing to fear.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: The Daaay the Muuuuuusic Died!

KultiVator @ 1/4/2006 6:27:07 PM #

Goodbye my friend (Garnet) it's hard to die, when all the birds (cynics) are singing (being verbally cynical)in the sky (PIC forums). Now that the spring (possible Linux based replacement) is in the air. Pretty girls (a final slew of OS5 models) are everywhere (well, will be).

We had joy, we had fun, sold our platform, then did run.
But the hills that we climbed, came from execs being blind!

(The next verse sounds like it was written for Nagel without much in the way of alterations!)

Nuff said. I'm off to bed!

KultiVator

RE: The Daaay the Muuuuuusic Died!

Surur @ 1/4/2006 7:19:06 PM #

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700w/today.epl

The features listed here are pretty cool, and it looks like Palm has really made an easy to use phone.

Surur

They said I only argued for the sake of arguing, but after an hour I convinced them they were wrong...

RE: The Daaay the Muuuuuusic Died!

Gekko @ 1/4/2006 8:28:18 PM #

I think the Reverend just had an acid flashback from his pre-saved days.

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