|
    Cingular Announces Treo 680 AvailabilityPosted By: Ryan on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 12:00:01 AM
“The Palm Treo 680 will open up the popular Palm experience to a much wider audience of Cingular customers,” said Jeff Bradley, vice president, business data services, for Cingular Wireless. “This next-generation Treo comes with all of the outstanding business features that Palm devotees have come to expect plus rich entertainment capabilities, and all at a very attractive price that will appeal both to businesses and individual users.”
The phone is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE Class 10 device and has a internal quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) antenna that is said to feature improved TIS/TRP performance (better RF reception) than the Treo 650. It has dimensions of 2.29" x 4.40" x 0.8" inches (58.4 x 111.8 x 20.3 mm) and weighs in at 5.5 ounces (156g). The Palm Treo 680 operates on Cingular’s nationwide EDGE network the largest national high-speed wireless data network in the United States with availability in more than 13,000 cities and towns, and along some 40,000 miles of major highways.
Pricing and Availability For a limited time, the Treo 680 will come with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go service and Yahoo! Music For Mobile. Users have the ability to access the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music library from the phone and to send tracks remotely to a PC.
More Stories Like This...  Palm & Telstra Launch Pre-paid Centro in Australia UBS Downgrades Palm to Sell Palm Presenting at the JPMorgan Technology Conference Next Week Sprint Begins Running a New Centro Commercial Palm to Present at Merrill Lynch Technology Conference Thursday Palm Centro Launched in Venezuela With Movistar More articles about Palm
Article Comments
54 total comments The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. PIC is not responsible for them in any way. login or register for free in order to post comments.
 Married? I'm Singular Like Wireless Babymatt_laughs @ 11/22/2006 8:49:10 AM #
yeah, this reminds me of the time i got a cingular wireless edge card. when it was new for 80 a month for unlimited, 1 year contract, then 6 monthes later i got a bill for 6 thousand dollars...... yeah they changed it back to normal. just very strange. but i find this pricing for the 680 more strange.
also, does cingular still only have customer phone service from like 8-5 mon-fri? that SUCKED
Definition of 'Low End'
$199 Down, $80+/month Nowadays you can get a brand new "Low End" car for less than that.  RE: Definition of 'Low End'
The nice thing about Cingular is that the unlimited data plans don't cost you $80/mo like on Verizon. They mention a $45 plan in the article and I believe there's a SmartPhone Connect plan with unlimited data for $20. That's in addition to your voice plan, but still comparatively reasonable. EVDO really isn't worth an extra $720 a year for me. I find EDGE data speeds to be plenty snappy for business applications that I cares about, which is one reason why I stick with Cingular as the carrier for my primary phone. I suspect that that logic will apply pretty well to quite a few enterprise customers of the Treo 680 as well. RE: Definition of 'Low End'AdamaDBrown @ 11/23/2006 5:02:21 PM #
Actually Verizon's smartphone data plans are $45 per month, as are Cingular's. The Cingular $20 plan is not supposed to be allowed for use on Treos or PPC phones, though in practice it's not hard to get.
Without data?Colormeweb @ 11/22/2006 9:20:43 AM #
Does anyone know what the cost will be if you dont want the data plan? There have got to be others like me that carry a palm and a phone and would like to converge but dont need the data plan. RE: Without data?
I have been using my Palm 650 since it came out and I don't have a data plan with Cingular and was never required to have one. And you should not be required to have one with the 680 either. Works great still... I am thinking of getting the 680
hmmmmmatt_laughs @ 11/22/2006 9:12:38 AM #
$449.99 from Cingular, with no contract (there is a month trial of Yahoo!'s music service and a free 1GB SD card, for a limited time only)-according to treocentral.
i need these things for work, thats why i get to the price of adjust my taxable gross income by tax deducting the price. their service was unreliable as far as the connection went, i got kicked off once an hour or once every 30 megabytes. whichever came first, on average. i had that, and a 3 foot 70$ wilson attenna and a sony ericson adapter....many phones have adapters for increased signal, but they are not in manuals, and unadvertised, yet wilson sells adapters to their external attenna ports, and they make modded adapters to work with ones that dont have the port. for people in rural areas, these are nice. that didnt help my connection, did increase one bar to two of signal, but i did get better speeds sometimes, in big cities. i later tried the original tracker attenna....it looks like an xm cone attenna, and it worked better in both respects.
Attracting new users to smartphones
From whatI understood part of Palms rationale with the 680 was to attract those who in the past haven't used smartphones by making them more appealing through lower prices and the like. Well what idiot, be it Cingular or Palm then decided, let's make them in colors but at Cingular, they'll only be available in graphite, despite the fact that women and the younger users may be attracted to colors and wait, lets price it more than the new nokia E62 and other available smartphones, and finally if you accept that 200.00 with a 2 year contract isn't the worse pricing, let's make that monthly data plan almost 50.00 a month. Yeah that will really draw Joe and Josephine "not early adopter "in to buy one. I'm going to guess, that Palm doesen't embrace the use of focus groups and then pass along the data to the carriers. At some point, I might upgrade someones phone, since we are a cingular family plan customer (3 650's and an e62) with data plans. however we weren't the target market in the first place. RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/22/2006 2:27:45 PM #
The E62 is available free now - no dataplan required (though I would suppose one would want one...maybe). And the Q is $99 - not sure why people Keep On Mentioning an $80 monthly plan, though, when that has never been a requirement - perhaps just FUD out of PALM marketing like the "enormous Q return rate"? RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
I'm guessing the 680 won't be $199 forever. Give it a few months and it'll be down to current Q pricing. (although by then, the Q will probably be free...) RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
SeldomVisitor wrote: The E62 is available free now - no dataplan required (though I would suppose one would want one...maybe). And the Q is $99 - not sure why people Keep On Mentioning an $80 monthly plan, though, when that has never been a requirement - perhaps just FUD out of PALM marketing like the "enormous Q return rate"? The E62 is not free: it's $99 after the rebate and a 2 yr plan. http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pda-phones-smartphones.jsp And sure, you can get Q without a data plan, but what would be the point of that? The point I've been making is you can get data plans for the 680 for as little as $8/mo, $20 for all-you-can-eat. RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/23/2006 6:55:26 PM #
Silly person - do you REALLY think I would post a hard statement like "The E62 is free now" without being absolutely sure of the fact that it is free? Sheesh. RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesmatt_laughs @ 11/23/2006 7:37:52 PM #
so where is your proof? thats what she said! RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/23/2006 7:42:11 PM #
Ya know, I should leave it as an exercise for the reader... In fact, I think I will. Enjoy yer search! [offer good til 28th or so so don't take yer time!] RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-shopping/cingular-wireless/nokia-e62.aspx Free. From certain dealers. RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
There's no free lunch in my experience with those third party dealers. Read the fine print (if you can even find it before it's too late) and beware. They typically require you to get a pricier calling plan than you need, penalize you if you change your plan later, often put arcane restrictions on how or whether you get your rebate, and don't tell you that you waive your ability to return the phone to the carrier if you have a problem with it. I dare you to try to process a return, get a replacement phone, or extract any kind of warranty service from one of those third party dealers. You get what you pay for. And I stand by my original statement that the E62 is *not* free in any sense of the word that matters--not from Cingular, and not from "LetsTalk" or "Wirefly." Are Treos 2 expensive 2 sell in 2006 - 2007?The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/24/2006 2:20:20 AM #
Beersy, your ability to pretend to not see any points that invalidate your position is quite endearing. Let me simplify things for you: Palm's smartphone offerings are being undercut on price by the competition. In a price-sensitive world, that is A Bad Thing.
RE: Will the 680 fly off the shelves in 2006-2007?
Palm has managed to sell millions of expensive smartphones for years. In a price-sensitive world, this is an Amazing Thing. Obviously they're doing something right or they wouldn't still be in business. Palm have addressed every major complaint* against the Treo with the 680, excepting thin-ness and wifi. The external antenna is gone, there's plenty of memory, the phone rececption is (apparently) improved and the price is much easier to digest. What's not to like? It's going to be a hit.
RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
TVoR wrote: Palm's smartphone offerings are being undercut on price by the competition. In a price-sensitive world, that is A Bad Thing. So go buy the cheaper competition! Nothing bad about that. I'm sure you'll love the E62. And you'll make a wonderful addition to the AllAboutSymbian forums! :D RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
The reset-by-removing-and-replacing-the-battery maneuver is actually pretty quick and easy. Just as importantly, it's something that a new user will try intuitively if the screen get's frozen in the "on" position. I thought it was weird at first, too, but after using it for a while I think maybe it's actually a good idea. David Beers Pikesoft Mobile Computing www.pikesoft.com/blog RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
this reset tool works good too assuming that the phone is not completely frozen. http://software.palminfocenter.com/product.asp?id=883 basic features are free - i.e. reset and auto phone radio turn-on. RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
verizon and cingular's data pricing is borderline criminal. sprint is cearly now the way to go. great coverage, great service, great pricing. http://sprint.p.delivery.net/m/p/sprint/epc/epclanding.asp RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/24/2006 11:28:33 AM #
The Q is now $75 at Amazon. RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/24/2006 11:29:32 AM #
And the E62 is $25 at Amazon. RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
Does Amazon still use InPhonic as its dealer? If so, absolutely watch out because they're one of the worst. InPhonic will promise you rebates that they do not pay and refunds on returns that never materialize. I've known three specific cases of people being ripped off for between $250 and $500 by InPhonic. David Beers Pikesoft Mobile Computing www.pikesoft.com/blog RE: Attracting new users to smartphonesSeldomVisitor @ 11/24/2006 3:06:35 PM #
You seem to be going sufficiently far out of your way to attempt to denigrate the idea that The Competition really is coming in better and cheaper than PALM that it suggests more than mere opinion is invested here. RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
^^ Just sounds like a fair warning about a dodgy third-party carrier to me... RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
SeldomVisitor wrote: You seem to be going sufficiently far out of your way to attempt to denigrate the idea that The Competition really is coming in better and cheaper than PALM that it suggests more than mere opinion is invested here. I don't know how you got the idea that I was saying the Treo was better than the cheaper competition. I think for a lot of folks the 680 will be a great choice thanks to the touchscreen and Palm's refinements, so I expect them to do well with it. But I'm personally also very impressed with the Nokia E61 with the built-in WiFi. And I'm fond of the ugly duckling Nokia 9300, which isn't cheaper than the Treo but is an awesome high-end PDA phone. I'm not so stupid as to suggest that the new crop of Treo knock-offs aren't going to be competing fiercely for Palm's customers. I like the Palm OS, but as most readers here know I've never been a huge fan of the Treo. The 680 has grown on me over the last few weeks, which is the longest time I've ever used a Treo, but my vision of a truly great smartphone isn't something that ANY vendor has come very close to hitting yet, so no, I'm absolutely not "invested," as you say.
RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
but my vision of a truly great smartphone isn't something that ANY vendor has come very close to hitting yet What is that vision? RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
freakout wrote: What is that vision? That's a little too long to go into here. I'll write it up soon (probably on my blog) and post a link for anyone who is interested.
Debunking Beersy (Part 27)The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/25/2006 12:21:14 PM #
TVoR wrote: Palm's smartphone offerings are being undercut on price by the competition. In a price-sensitive world, that is A Bad Thing. So go buy the cheaper competition! Nothing bad about that. I'm sure you'll love the E62. And you'll make a wonderful addition to the AllAboutSymbian forums! :D Since I was BANNED from the (long since dead) site, All About Palm for simply asking PalmSource's Michael Mace questions that everyone at Palm/PalmSource would prefer left unasked, I doubt I would ever join any other "All About XYZ" forum. As you know, I've been one of Palm's most vocal advocates (and critics) since the company began and have also heavily invested in PalmOS hardware, so despite your wishes, TVoR won't be going anywhere. As I now have the biggest stash of new Samsung i500, European (Bluetooth + Wi-Fi) Sony CLIE TH55 and CLIE UX50 on the planet, I suspect I'll be using PalmOS devices well after pretenders like you have moved on to Linux devices, Beersy. These Voices Don't Run. The reset-by-removing-and-replacing-the-battery maneuver is actually pretty quick and easy. Just as importantly, it's something that a new user will try intuitively if the screen get's frozen in the "on" position. I thought it was weird at first, too, but after using it for a while I think maybe it's actually a good idea. Your ability to rationalize Palm's stupidity knows no bounds, Beersy. I suppose next you'll be saying the smaller capacity battery is also A Good Thing, since it limits how much time you can use your device, freeing up precious time to spend with your family, right? Don't embarass yourself sprouting pure nonsense, Beersy.
And the E62 is $25 at Amazon. 2 reasons why Palm will post heavy losses this quarter (unless they again "borrow" sales from the future, which I hope Colligan is not stupid enough to try to pull off - unless they know the buyout is imminent). You seem to be going sufficiently far out of your way to attempt to denigrate the idea that The Competition really is coming in better and cheaper than PALM that it suggests more than mere opinion is invested here. hengeem, Beersy is one of the biggest Palm Apologists on the planet outside Sunnyvale. Even though he sounds like a Palm-sponsored Astroturfer, his ridiculously "optimistic" posts stem more from his uncontrollable need to ingratiate himself with Palm/PalmSource employees than any more sleazy reasons. ...the new crop of Treo knock-offs... Your feeble attempt to trivialize the design abilities of companies like Nokia, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, etc by claiming their smartphones are merely "Treo knock-offs" is quite telling, Beersy. It's obvious that youu're Colligan's biotch. freakout wrote: That's a little too long to go into here. I'll write it up soon (probably on my blog) and post a link for anyone who is interested. Be a man for a change, Beersy. Post your "brilliant" vision here at Palminfocenter for all to see (and respond to) rather than posting to your obscure little blog site that attracts few visitors.
1) Treo 600/Nokia E61 form factor, but lighter (5 oz), thinner, better (more tactile feedback but less resistance) buttons, no external antenna, slightly bigger (OLED) screen. 2) Samsung i550 form factor, but thinner, no external antenna. 3) HTC TyTN or Nokia 9300 form factor, but lighter, thinner and with slightly bigger screen. 4) Ultra-simplistic Sony Ericsson K750 (or similar) form factor. http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson-phones-19.php
TVoR Palm can't afford to keep crippling its productsThe_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/25/2006 1:34:39 PM #
Palm has managed to sell millions of expensive smartphones for years. In a price-sensitive world, this is an Amazing Thing. Obviously they're doing something right or they wouldn't still be in business. Wrong. It's not hard to succeed if you have no competition. Palm have addressed every major complaint* against the Treo with the 680, excepting thin-ness and wifi. The external antenna is gone, there's plenty of memory, the phone rececption is (apparently) improved and the price is much easier to digest. What's not to like? It's going to be a hit. Bull. What about weight, size, Wi-Fi, battery life, price and voice quality. How about build quality and reliability? All it would take is fo a new Motorola Q to become the trendy fashion statement du jour for business professionals (much like the Palm V did 7 years ago) and the Treo market may dry up, literally overnight. Palm seems incapable of understanding 2 crucial facts in the cellphone business: 1) Style sells and lack of style remains an albatross around Palm's neck. 2) Companies that stand still are soon DEAD. Just because you were first to market a solid product in a new niche means NOTHING to consumers a few years later. "What have you done for me lately?™" should be tattoed into the foreheads of every Palm employee ASAP. I Have Tattoo Needles And Will Travel... Call me, Ed. *although they've created some new ones: i.e. WTF is with No Reset Button? And of course the smaller battery, but I suppose that's the price we have to pay for more curves and a lighter weight... Again, Palm continues the tradition of buggering up its designs by design. Pathetic. That way of stratifying its products may have worked 5 years ago in the PDA sphere, but it sure as He11 won't work in 2007 in the cellphone market.
RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
Bull. What about weight, size, Wi-Fi, battery life, price and voice quality. How about build quality and reliability?
I'm disappointed in the smaller battery, but its all a tradeoff. It's not like we didn't get anything in return: we got a lighter, curvier phone. As for wifi, you're right. No excuses for that. It's also worth noting that the Treo still has one hardware to lord over other smartphones: the touchscreen. It's so very convenient, I'm not sure I could ever go back to using a gadget without one. All it would take is for a new Motorola Q to become the trendy fashion statement du jour for business professionals (much like the Palm V did 7 years ago) and the Treo market may dry up, literally overnight. Well, if the Q was Moto's best shot, forgive me if I die laughing. :P Again, Palm continues the tradition of buggering up its designs by design. Yep, I'm completely mystified by taking away the reset button. It's not like it would have added any extra cost, and leaving it in wouldn't have prevented first-time users from instinctively using the battery remove-and-replace maneuver. Bizarre, but not a dealbreaker. That way of stratifying its products may have worked 5 years ago in the PDA sphere, but it sure as He11 won't work in 2007 in the cellphone market. It's going to be an interesting year, isn't it? RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
TVoR: 1) Treo 600/Nokia E61 form factor, but lighter (5 oz), thinner, better (more tactile feedback but less resistance) buttons, no external antenna, slightly bigger (OLED) screen. 2) Samsung i550 form factor, but thinner, no external antenna. 3) HTC TyTN or Nokia 9300 form factor, but lighter, thinner and with slightly bigger screen. 4) Ultra-simplistic Sony Ericsson K750 (or similar) form factor. http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson-phones-19.php (1) - a slightly bigger screen would be nice but you then wind up with something too big for a phone but too small for a tablet. I think the E61 is actually a bit too wide already; even though that screen is gorgeous, it just feels weird when you're using it as a phone. (I was able to play with one at the Optus store the other day.) (2) Why don't we just petition Samsung to release an updated i550? ;) Agreed with 3 and 4. I'd also add: (5) Small clamshell, a la the LG CU400: http://tinyurl.com/y45ox6 cervezas Oh, go on. Give us a preview. ;) RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
It's also worth noting that the Treo still has one hardware to lord over other smartphones: the touchscreen. It's so very convenient, I'm not sure I could ever go back to using a gadget without one. Shhhh! Not so loud. Palm is in a habit of removing really useful features. Don't start them reconsidering this one too. My idea of a great smartphone
Ok, Tim, here's an article where I describe a Treo that I would consider to be a truly great smartphone: http://www.pikesoft.com/blog/index.php?itemid=120 I even included pictures so TVoR and Gekko can follow along! ;-) Basic design principles: 1. Modularize so users can "build their own" phone. If there's one thing we know from fan sites like PalmInfocenter it's that everyone has a different concept of the ideal feature set. So let them plug in the hardware features they want like you could with the old Handspring Visor. 2. Don't compromise on the physical interface. QWERTY keyboards are great for entering text but they suck when you're using the handset for its primary function: placing and receiving calls. A great smartphone should offer one keypad optimized for voice operation and another QWERTY keyboard for everything else. Nokia got it right with the 9000 series communicators--they just didn't get the size down enough and they left off the touchscreen. 3. You don't need a fragile touchscreen on the outside of the device if you've got a big one on the inside. Big enough to drive demand for premium data plans and persuade the carriers to subsidize it generously. After that it's just the same game everyone is playing: get the outside dimensions as small as you can. I don't think we're far away from being able to realize the design I describe in a sleek, pocketable enclosure. RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
>1. Modularize so users can "build their own" phone. If there's one thing we know from fan sites like PalmInfocenter it's that everyone has a different concept of the ideal feature set. So let them plug in the hardware features they want like you could with the old Handspring Visor. Beersie's "preferred" hardware add-on: http://www.b3tards.com/uploads/dildo-joystick.jpg RE: Attracting new users to smartphones
^^ Would have been funnier if you TinyURL'd that. The link gives it away ;) From the Pikesoft blog: Given that we are adding a module system and a touchscreen digitizer to the interior screen, I may actually be pushing beyond the envelope of what can feasibly (or economically) be done in the way of miniaturization. Clearly, small size is a big factor in smartphone adoption, especially among new users. But how long can it be before a "convertible" design like this can be realized with the slim profile that so many consumers expect today? That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? One of my mates had the Nokia 9300 you made reference to and it was laughably brick-like, even more so than the Treo. (He very quickly dumped it for something a bit less likely to induce a hernia) I think a lot of it hinges on batteries; it sucks that they're probably one of the slowest-moving areas of mobile tech. (How long has it been since we've seen a powerful, innovative new battery design for phones?) The problem with modularisation is that the relentless advance of technology will eventually make your modules obsolete. GPS chips, for instance, are shrinking rapidly: http://tinyurl.com/yx2ddb. Of course, the argument can be made that by putting everything into modules, you make the base unit dirt-cheap and people can just buy the bits they want. Nice ideas.
Only the first 40 comments are displayed with the article.
|
Special Deals
Palm Reading? |
||||
PalmInfocenter.com is not affiliated with or endorsed by Palm Inc, Access or PalmSource in any way.
Any use of the word Palm is for discussion purposes and is a registered trademark of Palm Inc.
Unauthorized reproduction of content is strictly forbidden.
© MobileInfocenter.com, all rights reserved.
== agreement and $449 with no contract..."
Yet you can buy a colored unlocked one direct from PALM for $399?
I'm sure Cingular likes that.