Treo 700w Updater Temporarily Pulled

When a CEO of a public company says:

== "X is coming by Y"

and says it in a way that cannot be "clarified", then X comes by Y regardless the quality of X.

Period.

Speaking of clarifications (and I may have commented elsewhere or even here about it already (certainly have quoted it here)):

== "...In our conference call last quarter, I shared with you that
== Palm would introduce four new smartphones in calendar year 2006.
== When I say new smartphones, I am referring to a combination of
== operating system, new hardware design, new radio technology or
== other significant advancement..."

IM-Oh-So-HO, CEOs do not "clarify what I meant last time" for no reason. Please note the catch-all last conjunction.

Verizon has an exclusive for 6 months - I don't remember reading explicit words that Verizon helped fund the TREO 700w but it wouldn't surprise me.

[of course, a corollary to this is - Why didn't SPRINT help fund the TREO 700w!?...]

IIRC, Sprint paid heavily for some of the first-gen Treo development to the embattled Handspring in return for launch exclusivity for the Treo 180 & definitely the Treo 300. In fact, and I am not a Treo expert, but I think ALL Treos to date save the 700W have debuted on Sprint. Certainly the 650 did and it's fairly well known that Sprint paid dearly to have that exclusive.

Yet when you look at the 650's sorry launch state (NVFS bugs, poor audio quality etc) Sprint actually ended up paving the way for OTHER carriers (Verizon primarily) to pick up the 650 once all of the major kinks had been worked out. For example, the Verizon 650 shipped with more available memory than Sprint's version did, due to the Verizon ROM version being pre-patched from the factory.

So it stands to reason that Sprint is tired of being a paying guinea pig (sound familar, guys?) for Palm's quality assurance department. Verizon is now Palm's new benefactor for the 700W and it's rumored that the 700P will have a near-simultaneous launch on both Verizon & Sprint. I predict late summer availability of the 700W on Sprint after Verizon has taken the launch-related lumps such as this patch being pulled.

Deep inside Palm HQ I bet Ed & co. are cursing daily at being so beholden to the carriers.

I still am waiting for Palm, Audiovox or one of the smaller carriers (Haier, ANYONE!) to pull the rug out from under the carriers and start offering unlocked GSM & non-branded/crippled CDMA phones direct on their website at "competitive" prices (ie; buy a phone outright for $50 more than the 2-year contract price). Whoever gives the fat middle finger first will be the Napster of the wireless market and turn the whole F****** industry on its ear.

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

HTC anyone?

-- http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/25/nokias-n73-and-n93-launched/

I wager that if the "average" Howard Chui/PIC/Engadget type reader/customer were not shackled by forced two-year contracts and offered well-designed, reasonably priced cellular handsets, for every granny that lugged a MicroTAC around for 7 years you'd have three gadget freaks buying/E-Baying new handsets quarterly. I mean, now that the mandatory GPS/E911 functionality is built into all new handsets and AMPS is almost completely gone on all but a handful of CDMA handsets there's NO technical reason not to let people buy cellular handsets/smartphones in a "retail" fashion.

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

May You Live in Interesting Times

The answers and comments I read indicate that Palm doesn't give a crap about consumers who want to buy their product. The carriers are wh*res, of course, playing games trying to force people to get in bed with them because they've momentarily cornered the market on a certain handset. It really seems lame. I'm all for competition but it makes an already confusing situation with carriers, plans, gotchas, and service levels even worse.

I have a friend who needs a new phone. I guess they should just go with the Treo model that is currently available from their carrier, which may be artificially out-dated but unavailable in the current or soon-to-be current w/p models. Same friend bought one of the HTC/Wizards (?) wifi, keyboard, Windows mobile, etc. phones and Cingular didn't include the power cord. When they called to get the power cord they were told that they didn't have any spare parts and couldn't send one out. Due to some other interface issues and the power cord missing the unit went back to Cingular. GZ

What a bunch of made-up hooie!

This is from Yahoo, but BOY is it relevant here:

-----

Words to remember:

== "...Information posted to message boards
== should not be used as a substitute for
== independent research, and should not be
== relied on to trade or make investment
== decisions. Prudent investors do their
== homework and don't believe everything they
== read on message boards..."
==
== "...Never assume people are who they say
== they are, know what they say they know, or
== are affiliated with whom they say they are
== affiliated..."

-- http://messages.yahoo.com/reminder.html

Uh, they're selling two million devices a year. You don't think that entitles them to thumb their noses at the carriers a bit? A little WiFi for instance?

OF course, the lion's share of Treos sold are likely done via retail outlets (still) to execs & biz types so Palm would need to drastically beef up its retail presence--likely via its own stores in addition through someone like CC/BB/staples/OD.

Of course the carriers are Palm's BIGGEST Treo customer nowadays--that's how the cellular market works. Who's to say Palm cannot be the one to turn the market on its ear and make the USER their biggest customer, just like how it always worked in the ol' PDA days?

Palm shoul've listened to me when I said they needed a T|C2 back in '05 with an emphasis on data & VOIP! ;-)
A device like that, maybe even marketed in tandem with Linksys/D-Link/Netgear would give them a solid safety net if the bottom ever fell out of the Treo market or they fell out of favor with the carriers.

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

Unfortunately I think it's going to end up being someone like Asus/Haier (probably a Chinese firm most likely) who will somehow sidestep the big carriers and begin selling handsets directly to the consumer. Contracts will probably still exist but they will be "service agreements" and you can swap hardware freely within the terms of your contract.

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

Well, in business, if you are trying to achieve something and you face tough competition, it generally comes down to two options: you either beat 'em or you join 'em. While Palm is doing OK for now, in the scheme of things it's only a very small company. Compared to the big boys, Palm couldn't fight its way out of a wet paper bag. That limits its options, doesn't it?

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their profits.