Rumor: Camera-less Treo 600 Coming?

Posted By: Ryan Friday, March 12, 2004 12:19:08 PM

New reports indicate that a camera-less version of the palmOne Treo 600 could be coming soon.

TreoCentral is reporting that a non-camera version of the Sprint Treo 600 will be available in late April. The release could possibly fall on April 21st.

Many corporations are currently testing the Treo 600 trial deployments. Many companies, factories and even health clubs prohibit the use of Cameraphones. A version of the Treo 600 could address such industrial and corporate concerns and open up the device for larger enterprise deployments.

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First post! Big whoop!

Rico @ 3/12/2004 1:03:25 PM #

I'd be interested in a camera-less Treo 600. I bought mine in January and love it, but I've never used the camera once, except to just see how it works. The Treo 600 is dang expensive (I got some great rebates from Amazon and from Sprint) and anything to make it more affordable would be appreciated. I'd like to get my wife one!

Hi-Res screen would be nice, But honestly I just haven't missed it (I had a Clie 615c.) The Treo has such a bright screen. It looks fine to me. (And I'll happily buy a hi-res screen Treo when available, and affordable. Ha!)

Good move

HandyMan @ 3/12/2004 2:31:19 PM #

Bravo to palmOne for releasing a camera-less version and bucking the trend that every new phone must have a camera.

RE: Good move

Patrick @ 3/12/2004 3:20:47 PM #

That trend is encouraged by the network providers, who make a ton of money from folks sending picature data to each other. I guess its nice to be able to decide which devices are acceptable to your network. I'd actually like to see that sort of thing regulated. If a device passes a standards organization's trials, it ought to be allowed onto any compatible network. The EM spectrum should belong to us, not corporations.

RE: Good move

ganoe @ 3/12/2004 4:32:52 PM #

Except that I don't see how this could be a very profitable move. Remove a $1 part and consumers will expect it to cost $50 less. I hope they already have some bulk enterprise orders lined up for this.

RE: Good move

rsc1000 @ 3/13/2004 7:14:06 PM #

>>That trend is encouraged by the network providers, who make a ton of money from folks sending picature data to each other. I guess its nice to be able to decide which devices are acceptable to your network.

Actually the network providers have been bugging the manufacturers to provide cameraless version of there phones. This is because a number of market sectors (especially the enterprise) don't want cameras on the phones.

RE: Good move

JonathanChoo @ 3/14/2004 7:15:05 AM #

Making tons of money from sending picture messaging? Here in the UK I can see almost no one using the feature. Cameras on mobiles are not even useful for e-mails and sending them cost alot of money. I think I will wait for the S700 (1.3Mp) before I think that cameras on mobiles can a serious plaything.

---
PDAs: Psion 5> Vx > m505 > N770C > T625C > NR70V > Toshiba e310 > T/T > HP h2210 > T/T3
Mobiles: StarTac > Ericsson T28m > T39m > T68m > T610 > T630
DigiCam: Minolta DiMage E323

Fan-darn-tastic

sgingras @ 3/12/2004 4:11:21 PM #

Great! Why?

1) Many companies (including mine) do not allow image/video recording devices within their facility.

2) Personally, I am growing tired of having to pay a premium for a low quality camera on higher end peripherals. I finally gave up looking for a decent bluetooth phone because of all the bells and whistles included on such phones. Not every peripheral needs to converge such that they are all dessert toppings AND floor waxes.

Two points for Palm...and two more for anyone who gets that last reference. :-)

cheers,
Steve

RE: Fan-darn-tastic

hkklife @ 3/12/2004 5:02:03 PM #

Agreed. Now, hopefully this will be the last step before we see a 610 Treo (or whatever it's called) with a high-res screen. Give me a 610 on Verizon and I'll be a very happy fellow!

I have to admit that the crackdown on cell phone camera/pda cameras has really surprised me. I'd personally be hard pressed to find any sort of 640*480 blurry pic of a someone's rump taken at a fitness club titillating in ANY manner!

RE: Fan-darn-tastic

Rico @ 3/12/2004 5:03:32 PM #

Saturday Night Live...back with Dan Aykroyd?

RE: Fan-darn-tastic

sgingras @ 3/15/2004 12:16:59 AM #

We have a winner! :-)

Great, but now add 2 more carriers

vesther @ 3/13/2004 9:49:03 PM #

The abscence of the camera is news to a lot of people because IMO there is no need for me for a camera on my phone because simply built-in cameras have sarcastic quality and you can actually get better cameras as stand-alone digital cameras that do more than built-in cameras from high-end models.

However, what I really think is that PalmOne should start working with BOTH Verizon and Nextel (the only carriers that don't have Palm-Powered Smartphones) because frankly, corporations should concentrate on the easier-to-use Palm Powered Devices as opposed to Blackberries and PocketPCs not to mention Symbian devices.

Verizon needs a Palm-Powered Smartphone like this. Otherwise, they will lose me as one of their lost customers. In addition, PalmOne MUST work with Nextel to bring in an iDEN Version of the Treo. Although Nextel's Windows Mobile Smartphone is coming this fall, the iDEN Market is in need of some serious Palm-Powered Culture.

A Palm-Powered Handheld is the bread and butter for many people. Without a Palm-Powered Handheld, your progress is all for naught.

services

tritan @ 3/14/2004 10:31:34 PM #

where is the verizon version? sprint and t-mobile suck in my area. What about nextel??

May the Palm os be with you

RE: services

RyanP @ 3/16/2004 10:55:58 AM #

"where is the verizon version? sprint and t-mobile suck in my area. What about nextel??"

verizon has the best tower sites and 800 mhz spectrum in a lot of markets (which both facilitate coverage).

sprint is expected to offer a phone with antenna diversity. This means you have two antennas at the same frequency which receive two versions of the same signal and combine it for a better signal. One or both antennas can be internal.

When this comes out (and it is supposed to be out in 2004) it will provide sprint users with that phone with much better reception, data rates and effectively "coverage."

back to camer-less treos. Excellent idea. Its nice to see a vendor responding to the needs of the consumer (in this case enterprise) rather than to their own needs.

one of the funniest things i've heard is that Samsung, a leading supplier of camera phones, actually prohibits its employees from bringing them inside of its plants.

Remove the camera put bluetooth

Hitman1 @ 3/18/2004 10:32:18 AM #

That would make it really awesome. Take off the crappy camera and use the space for bluetooth adapter. While we're in the mood of taking off things, take off that tiny keyboard and put on graffiti.