Treo On Track for Revised Release Schedule

Two weeks ago, Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky revealed that production of the Treo had run into a glitch and the company was going to delay its roll-out in the U.S. At the time, she said the wireless smartphone would be available online in limited quantities in February and in U.S. retail stores in March. Yesterday, Ms. Dubinsky said that the parts shortage that is causing the delay is being cleared up and she believes the Treo will meet that revised schedule, according to Cnet. The company has yet to say which vendor caused the problem or what part it is short of.

Ms. Dubinsky also talked about the color version of the Treo, which the company plans to release later this year. She said it will use a new kind of color screen that offers good viewability both indoors and outdoors and also uses as little power as a monochrome screen.

During its part shortage, Handspring has concentrated on non-U.S. markets. It is shipping most of the units it produces to Europe and the Treo was officially released in Hong Kong yesterday and is expected to be announced in Singapore soon.

The Treo uses the GSM standard, which has almost 100% coverage in Europe and is widely used in Asia. The U.S., on the other hand, has a hodge-podge of wireless standards and GSM is available in only a few areas. Handspring is working on a CDMA version of the Treo for the U.S. but it is not yet available and the company will only say it will be out before the end of this year.

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TREO: off and stumbling

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:16:58 AM #
i can't believe what i just read. i guess i missed it the first time that i read the specs on the 180. i live in LA and travel to france 4 times a year. i have an ericsson t39 that works here and there. all this time i'm waiting for the treo so i can toss my Vx/Omnisky. i ask myself is the treo triband???????
well, NO! it's either bi-band US or bi-band Europe. i can't believe it. what? should i buy 2 treos for when i'm traveling? i guess i'm keeping my t39 ready. i thought the whole idea was that we would only need 1 device? i'm just baffled at the logic! gsm, but only one continent at a time.

NEXT!

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:41:18 AM #
I agree.. I bought the Visorphone.. and it worked fine in europe and in the states..

Now they release the Treo locked to geographical location?

Handspring.. You SUCK

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:53:47 AM #
what's your problem, according to the specs the treo *is* a GSM 900/1900 so you're only missing out on the European GSM 1800 bands...

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:59:15 AM #
From HS USA website: " ... the Treo is a
GSM 900/1900 MHz world phone ... "

From the HS UK & HK sites: " ... the Treo is a
Dual-band GSM900-1800 phone"

Thus, USA Treos can function outside the USA on 900MHz; however, it seems the 900/1800 Treos won't talk when visiting the USA (1900 MHz only). Hmmm...

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 12:26:04 PM #
is it so hard to include 900/1800/1900 all in one phone? wouldn't it be easier to market? 1 WORLD phone???????? i don't get it.

i can't wait until AT&T gets their GSM act together here in LA then i can use my t39 with bluetooth headset and not have to use cingular's network.

what to do? it seems that every product that gets announced falls short of being THE ONE!
treo- no bluetooth, no sd slot, dual band, one OS fits all, etc....

i705-no built in bluetooth, bluetooth card $150, no phone, etc.....

now what?

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
mstur @ 1/30/2002 2:51:21 PM #
Keep your T39 and Vx and wait for better times ;-)
I have also the T39 and a Vx, and I think we are MUCH MUCH better off with this combo than with the Treo 180.

Just keep in mind:
1. The T39 easily lasts three days without recharging, the Vx up to three weeks. The Treo eats batteries for lunch...
2. The T39 has a 4-1 GPRS, the Treo might get an upgrade to 2-1, which is only half the download bandwith...
3. The T30 also has triband GSM and bluetooth...
4. You always could get a nice Sony Clie PEG-T625 to go with your T39 for less than the price of the Treo!!

Michael

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 3:14:51 PM #
Plus with the T30 and the Palm you can update every contact you have in 2 places and carry two devices. Double the fun. NOT !

Can US Treo send SMS to Europe?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 10:49:50 PM #
I have friends in Europe that I'd like to send SMS to. Will the US Treo be able to do this, or will it only be able to send SMS to other GSM US phones.

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 4:10:06 AM #
"Plus with the T30 and the Palm you can update every contact you have in 2 places and carry two devices. Double the fun. NOT !"

No you don't
I too got a T39 and Vx with a bluetooth addon and since the t39 supports syncML the phone and the palm can easily be synced. Also haveing a phone and a palm is better than a combined unit in my world, since you can chose whatever or not to bring them both or just the phone. Also you don;t actually have to carry around the phone if you got bt, you can have it in your bag or pocket and still be able to send sms, surf the web or even make phone calls (i got a bt headset to, and can operate the phone using the palm).

Re: Can US Treo send SMS to Europe?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 4:13:31 AM #
Yes it should be able to. SMS messages are not sent directly between phones but via a message center.

In the past, I've successfully sent SMS messages from San Francisco (Pac Bell I think) to Europe.

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 10:53:57 AM #
What Blue tooth device do you put to your Vx, the big ugly one ?

When is Palm coming out with a device integrating Bluetooth and as sleek as the Vx ?

RE: TREO: off and stumbling
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 11:30:04 AM #
Voicestream has crappy support for SMS outside of it's network. Not Tero's fault. Just issues with GSM in the US.

OLED?

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:26:10 AM #
sounds like it to me.

RE: OLED?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:27:49 AM #
Define OLED, please.

RE: OLED?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 11:30:42 AM #
Organic Light Emitting Diode

http://webopedia.lycos.com/TERM/O/OLED.html

RE: OLED?
justincase @ 1/30/2002 12:01:44 PM #
OLED would be a significant step in the right direction. OLED does not require a backlight, is 20-50% cheaper to produce, thinner and lighter then LCD's, and has a quicker response. Currently, the market for OLED is small, but is forcasted to hit 2.75B in 2005. I would expect to see PDA's, cellphones, and other small devices begin to use OLED displays in the near future (or at least I hope so).

http://www.usdc.org/newsroom/newsletters_downloads/ppdisplaytrends.PDF

RE: OLED?
pontif @ 1/30/2002 12:13:31 PM #
The only drawback is that OLEDs have a short life span. The entire display gradually becomes dimmer and more washed out. It is also common for individual pixels to "burn out" and quit working.

At least that is the state of the current technology.
Surely this will improve with time.

RE: OLED?
DvsMark @ 1/30/2002 12:23:20 PM #
Your right, OLED technology will change for the better, but this is totally irrelevant to HandSpring. I honestly believe that they could care less as to the longevity of an OLED screen provided it lasts 6 months. History shows that HS has little or no concern for there customers. From the messages that they have sent to the marketplace I'm surprised anybody that values customer/vendor support would consider purchasing anything from HS. Just my $0.02.

mark

RE: OLED?
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 12:35:55 PM #
I believe the question was asked if the Treo 270 would use an OLED at the Chicago Palm Users Group and the HS representative who was showcasing the Treo said an OLED would not be used in the 270.

Must last longer than 6 months
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 9:13:45 PM #
They have 1-year warranties.

I got one!

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 12:26:37 PM #
I am already using a Treo since 3 weeks. It is available for purchase in the Czech Republic, no problem. It is a good device, only battery life is miserable! I also have some problems with GSM Banking SIM Toolkit application.

RE: I got one!
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 2:04:32 PM #
I'm interested to know more about the 'miserable' battery life. Does it manage the advertised 60hours standby and how much talktime are you getting.
More information please.
This is the stuff I NEED to know before I ditch my mobile phone.
Thanks
Matt.

RE: I got one!
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 10:59:13 PM #
Yesh as well how is the reception to this phone?.. do you notice any glitchs or bugs?..

RE: I got one!
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 6:17:04 AM #
The phone is dead at the end of the day with a normal, not heavy usage. If you fully recharge in the evening, keep the phone on at night and use it the next day, your battery will be dead when you drive home from work! Guaranteed!

As far as glitches and bugs are concerned: The phone sometimes does not handle SMSes correctly. You receive a blank SMS with a wrong date, no text in the body,... weird! If for whatever reason SMSes are stored on your SIM card, and your phone is on, you would not be notified about them until you turn phone off and on again. Then you get a chance to transfer the messages from SIM card memory to the device. I have mentioned the SIM Toolkit problem. The device freezes once in a while, most of the times as a result of incorrect handling of call waiting and swithching between two calls at one time.

cdma

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 12:40:48 PM #
any word on the cdma treo's?

RE: cdma
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 12:50:59 PM #
did you read the story?

RE: cdma
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 1:02:26 PM #
Hey, give him a break. Did you expect him to actually read the WHOLE story?

C'mon. There were 4 paragraphs before the part abou-

-Oops. Sorry, I can't be bothered to finish this post

RE: cdma
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 1:08:07 PM #
Perhaps he was confused. In the story it was in all caps. For future reference it is case insensitive,therefore:

CDMA = cdma

RE: cdma
OrionNE @ 1/30/2002 2:49:09 PM #
Well I looked at at CNet story and didn't see cdma or CDMA so please link it for me.
Also I want a Treo but need three things.

CDMA, Color, Memory slot of some sort.

OrionNE

RE: CDMA
Ed @ 1/30/2002 3:32:04 PM #
> Well I looked at at CNet story and didn't see cdma or CDMA

The info about the CDMA version of the Treo isn't from Cnet. I was told that during an interview I did with the head of Handspring's PR department a couple of weeks ago.

---
News Editor

RE: cdma
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 9:33:04 AM #
who cares? gsm will be king in a few months. cdma is dead

RE: cdma
I.M. Anonymous @ 2/1/2002 6:15:12 AM #
>who cares? gsm will be king in a few months. cdma is
> dead

Um...no! If CDMA was dead, I'd seriously doubt HS would be releasing a CDMA Treo. With Verizon launching their 2.5G network and Sprint's 3G a few months away, CDMA is going to be around for quite some time in the US. CDMA is also not just a standard used in the US. It is used in a lot of other countries. Granted, not as much as GSM but its presence is strong enough outside the US that it will continue to be a force. And why shouldn't it be? CDMA is the newer, more superior technology. Higher network capacity, more advanced cloning protection, faster data speeds, supports data with no modifications (unlike GSM), more technically advanced voice transmission for better voice quality than GSM, etc. Oh ya, CDMA also has the capabiltiy to use SIM cards (just hasn't been implemented). And you know that crap technology TDMA that Cingular and AT&T are moving away from? Betcha didn't know GSM is based off of that (its really just a modification of TDMA)!

where's the love

I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 6:52:03 PM #
I don't think it matters too much if it is a world device, but I would think in the long run it would be cheaper to manufacture a single type of device versus multiple versions.

The one version they should manufacture? A 3G so I can colour web browse and dl at faster rates. Why introduce a phone that is going to be outdated in less than a year?

RE: where's the love
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 8:31:38 PM #
it's already outdated

RE: where's the love
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/30/2002 8:59:55 PM #
You know how many cities support 3G in the world? Handspring will go bankrupt in no time if they manufacture 3G phones. They need cash FAST.

RE: where's the love
jonecool @ 1/31/2002 1:32:53 AM #
fyi- The TREO WILL be upgradable to 3G. Therefore, it's not outdated. Granted, the TREO PalmOS software is not flash upgradable but apparently the phone code is. Also, the VisorPhone is Flash upgradable (similar hardware that exists within the TREO). I upgraded mine to v1.0.1. I doubt there will be a patch for the VisorPhone to operate via a 3G network, but wouldn't that be a cool idea!


RE: where's the love
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 4:18:16 AM #
The Treo will not be upgradable to 3G which implies a data bandwidth much higher than GPRS (sometimes referred to as 2.5G) which the Treo will support in the future.

RE: where's the love
I.M. Anonymous @ 1/31/2002 12:05:34 PM #
I believe that it is very important that the Treo is a world phone in all regions where it is sold. A significant percentage of potential customers of this type of device are frequent travellers who need tri-band support.

Dual-band 900 MHz/1900 MHz would be a possible substitute for me (I'm in Germany). This would at least cover North America, my home network in Germany and allow me to roam in most other countries.

I understand, however, that dual-band 900 MHz/1800 MHz is planned for the European version of the Treo which is understandable since many networks are 1800 MHz only.

I was planning to get a Treo but the apparent lack of a world compatible version means that I probably will not.


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