Palm to Announce Treo 750 for Cingular at CES?

Rumor: Engadget is reporting that the upcoming CES '07 will mark the announcement of the Treo 750 for Cingular's GSM network in the United States. This often-delayed device was introduced earlier in 2006 by Vodafone but to date has yet to officially appear on any domestic carrier. Engadget is listing Sunday, January 7th as the official release date. The release of the Americanized Treo 750 will complete the full 2006 release schedule promised by Ed Colligan--Treo 700w, 700p, 750, 700wx, 680.

Palm Treo 750vThe Palm Treo 750 runs Windows Mobile 5.2 Pocket PC edition. It is powered by a 300MHz Samsung processor and has 128MB nonvolatile flash memory (60MB available for storage). The display is a 65k colour, 240 x 240 pixel touch screen. It has integrated Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology, but like previous Treos does not include Wi-Fi support. It has a new side mounted mini-SD memory expansion and a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom.

The Palm Treo 750 was approved by the FCC back in November.

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Wouldn't be surprising

SeldomVisitor @ 1/4/2007 12:58:04 PM # Q
TreoCentral has photos and emails about the same (posting those emails - including folks names from the emails - seems kinda like a no-no to me...YMMV I guess!).

Reply to this comment

WiFi

LiveFaith @ 1/4/2007 4:00:08 PM # Q
Surely there's space for the WiFi hardware. That fat outdated Treo design + all that cavernous space created by the "upgrade" to Mini-SD.

Pat Horne
RE: WiFi
hkklife @ 1/4/2007 4:10:23 PM # Q
Remember, Palm belongs to the carriers now. If they don't want it, Palm doesn't include it (see: no wi-fi, no VOIP or PTT, no CDMA BT DUN on their PDAs etc etc). Palm loves this arrangement because it lets them keep skimping on hardware specs while STILL selling Treos to the carriers. Who cares what users like you and me want anymore!?

The "beauty" of the wireless biz (especially so in the USA) from Palm's perspective is that it's a perfectly closed economy where 99.999% of the people merrily accept & buy whatever handsets the cellcos deem worth certifying/approving/buying/offering to the consumer.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: WiFi
cervezas @ 1/4/2007 4:44:07 PM # Q
The "beauty" of the wireless biz (especially so in the USA) from Palm's perspective is that it's a perfectly closed economy where 99.999% of the people merrily accept & buy whatever handsets the cellcos deem worth certifying/approving/buying/offering to the consumer.

Have to disagree with you there. Colligan has said he wishes the carriers would stop subsidizing handsets to open the door for companies like Palm to sell directly to consumers without the prohibitive cost disadvantage, and I take him at his word on that. No company likes having to sell through a channel if they can possibly avoid it. It's not just that the channel takes their pound of flesh, it's also because the channel's interests are never going to be fully aligned with the consumers' interest. Marketing to customers through a channel is like having sex by remote control: neither you nor the customer is going to get what you could from the experience and the fact that you're doing it at all is because you can't get it any other way.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

RE: WiFi
hkklife @ 1/4/2007 5:05:52 PM # Q
Since when has Palm acted in the consumers' best interests? The myriad of Treo 680 updates were nice, yes, as was the big T5 1.1 patch and the fast fix to the T3 toasting SD cards. Otherwise, I mostly recall:

-The outright replacement of G1 by G2 with no alternate options offered, even for $$

-~4 weeks weeks to go until the Vista launch for consumers (and corporate Vista already here) and not a peep from Palm on their plans for Vista Palm Desktop support and/or legacy product support

-The most current version of Palm Desktop (according to Palm's support page) still does not officially support Windows XP MCE or 64-bit editions.

-The 700p remains unpatched, laggy and buggy 8 months since its release

-The LifeDrive's crippled memory architecture

-The m500 SUDS fiasco

-Quietly crippling the TX & LD to not work with CDMA phones via BT DUN (again, done by Palm at the behest of the carriers)

It's easy to prattle about "wishing" the carriers would stop offering subsidies. "Acting" like a wireless biz revolutionary is an entirely different thing. Here's one possible course of action:

#1 IF Colligan & co. really wanted to turn the industry on its ear they could oh-so-easily price unlocked Treo 680s direct from Palm.com and Palm kiosks/stores the SAME as what Cingular is selling it for with a 2-year contract. That'd be ~$199. Heck, even at $250 it'd be revolutionary. It might *REALLY* irk Cingular but it'd neatly divide the Palm camp....CDMA Treos devices are cozy with the big domestic carriers and GSM Treos are the "DIY renegade" type devices.

#2 Following up on the above, the next move would be to sell something that looks similar to the 680 (heck, even brand it as a Palm PDA instead of a Treo) but with BT & wi-fi in place of a cellular radio. Bundle it with some a 30-day T-Mob HotSpot trial and some solid VOIP software and --bingo!--there's an action with the consumer in mind. A keyboard-toting, VOIP-wielding phone that's more than just a PDA but a PDA that's not quite a phone.

#3 THEN....Google will really come to beat down Palm's door with $ in hand! The above can then be rebranded as the "GooglePhone by Palm". ;-)

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: WiFi
ChiA @ 1/4/2007 5:44:37 PM # Q
I suspect Palm panders to every whim of the carriers simply because it lacks the financial or even intellectual wherewithal to promote its own smartphone products, it desperately needs them to advertise Palm's Treos; consumers can't buy what they don't know is available. I do congratulate Palm on its increase of smartphone sales but I'm left wondering whether it will be sustainable in this very competitive market.
RE: WiFi
cervezas @ 1/4/2007 5:49:31 PM # Q
Oh, don't mistake me for the "Palm Apologist" straw man that TVoR loves to attack. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination claiming that everything that comes out of Palm's doors is what is best for their customers. Just that the mistakes they make in execution on their own account are compounded by "mistakes" that the carriers force them to make.

There's another way that selling through the carrier channel compounds Palm's execution problems: if Palm were selling directly to the customer and dealing with all the support calls themselves instead of having those handled by the carriers, they might benefit from the more direct feedback that's required to make better products. Part of the harm that selling through a channel does to your business is just the diminished contact you have with the end user. It's a lot easier to discount complaints that get posted on Internet forums as coming from "a self-selected group of atypical whiners" if you don't have that direct communication to the majority of your customers backing up what they say.

When you suggest that Palm only needs to sell the 680 unlocked for the same subsidized $199 that the carriers offer to teach them a lesson, I don't know why you stop there. Why not just give them away free as some resellers are doing and really do right by their customers! Palm's CFO and shareholders could probably speak better to that question than I could. One thing is for sure: if Palm decided to cut their margins so the unlocked price was closer to the carrier's subsidized price it would mean less subscriber lock-in for the carriers, resulting in less subsidization. Palm's price goes down, carrier price comes up even faster. It might be harder for Palm to compete with vendors who are willing to play the carrier game, but for better or worse Colligan would quickly get his no-subsidy wish.

My guess is he wanted the subsidies to go away for Palm's competitors, not just for Palm. :-)

A better suggestion for "turning the industry upside down" might be for Palm to become an MVNO, which would probably be something that could only happen in the context of a merger with a company that had the clout and experience to pull such a thing off. Not sure if that would be good for Palm in other ways, but it might better accomplish the kind of shake-up you're talking about.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

RE: WiFi
LiveFaith @ 1/4/2007 8:03:59 PM # Q
Gosh! All I wanted was 320x480.

Pat Horne
RE: WiFi
Rhauer @ 1/4/2007 9:02:42 PM # Q
YEah!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why can't we get 320 x 480 with a slidding keyboard.

RE: WiFi
PadOPaper @ 1/5/2007 8:49:46 PM # Q
320x480 with a keyboard? where are you going to put that thing, it ain't fitting in a normal pants pocket and you can't wear cargo pants all the time. I don't understand the reasoning that would justify the substantial increase in size this would entail.

I'm all for slightly slimmer and some more bells and whistles, just don't get the need for a physically larger screen or substantially smaller text on a higher resolution screen.

Try walking around and sitting down with something that large in your pocket or attached to your belt (not that i condone the wearing of a belt holster)

Who needs expensive gadgets, give me a pencil and some post-its. Added benefit, perfect handwriting recognition.

RE: WiFi
twrock @ 1/5/2007 9:48:54 PM # Q
320x480 with a keyboard? where are you going to put that thing....

If you take a look at the stuff that HTC puts out, you will find that "full-sized" rectangular screens and slide-out keyboards do not create a device too big for a pants pocket.

Personally I'm more interested in something like a TX with a cell radio. I don't want the keyboard, whether it's slide-out or not.

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

RE: WiFi
hkklife @ 1/5/2007 10:04:14 PM # Q
-Similar formfactor to TX
-320*480 screen
-Large capacity internal battery (if a user-replacable one likely isn't possible)
-SDIO slot w/ "official" SDHC compatibility
-3.5mm stereo headphone jack w/ Treo ring/vibrate slider switch next to it.
-Charge LED and at least one programmable side button (for voice recording etc)
-D-pad similar to Treo 680/750. Illuminated d-pad and app launch buttons like Treos have.
-BT 1.2 with A2DP would be fantastic. If not, then a reliable BT 1.2 stack and an EVDO radio. No wi-fi is fine by me.
-128mb program memory (like TX) but w/ larger DBcache/DBheap sizes
-~1 or 2gb of internal flash ala T5 would be ideal
-No keyboard is fine by me, especially if Palm would give the option of replacing Graffiti 2 with alternate methods of stylus input (Decuma, Graffiti 1 etc).

Offer two versions of the above device. One with *NO* cellular voice functionality whatsoever. Just keep it a data-anywhere wireless cellular PDA w/ VOIP handset functionality (keep the mic of course & external speaker, of course).

Then the 2nd variant on the above can be a bit curvier and/or thicker and incorporate a proper earpiece speaker (like a regular Treo) and have cellular voice capabilities standard (again, like a regular Treo).

I'd pay $500+ for such a device IF it was well-built, reliable, reasonably sleek etc.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: WiFi
twrock @ 1/5/2007 10:56:21 PM # Q
For me it'd be variant 2, but:
-definitely include WiFi
-I can do without the large internal flash (but if it added no cost, of course it'd be nice)
Otherwise, that's the device. (And shape is a non-issue for me. Just make that screen size 3.5 inches or larger and the case as small as possible given all other restraints.)

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
RE: WiFi
twrock @ 1/5/2007 11:15:24 PM # Q
Incidentally, this phone caught my eye recently: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35590
But then I noticed the small physical screen size which is probably the killer for me. (Lack of WiFi in the initial version is another disappointment.)

FIC is supposedly going to ship this thing for $350. With minimal "moving" parts and commodity components, there is no reason why these types of "smartphones" can't be competitively priced.

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

RE: WiFi
goat_fajitas @ 1/6/2007 8:59:03 AM # Q
"Remember, Palm belongs to the carriers now. If they don't want it, Palm doesn't include it (see: no wi-fi, no VOIP or PTT, no CDMA BT DUN on their PDAs etc etc). Palm loves this arrangement because it lets them keep skimping on hardware specs while STILL selling Treos to the carriers. Who cares what users like you and me want anymore!?"

Oh puhleeeeese !

This isnt about carriers, it is about consumers. Most sonsumers dont need or want wifi in a handheld. They are paying out the nose for broadband (EVDO and UMTS) on thier cellular accounts and that makes Wifi a useless feature for 98% of the people that are buying these phones.

You would be more correct to state that "Palm and the carriers dont care what a very small percentage of power users like you and me want anymore."

If there were a TReo with and without Wifi, I would honestly choose without. Save a few bucks and go without a feature I would never ever use.

RE: WiFi
hkklife @ 1/6/2007 11:34:24 AM # Q
If Palm didn't care what the carriers think, then they'd have released wi-fi SDIO card drivers for the Treos years ago..and aggressively pushed a sleek new low-profile SDIO (or mini-SDIO) branded wi-fi card + drivers to use in the newer Treo devices. Also, why has Palm not at least aided independent hardware vendors (Socket, Sandisk etc) in creating a Treo-compatible wi-fi SDIO card?

Look how long it took Palm to produce a conventional handheld bearing wi-fi after the Tungsten C's launch. It was ~2.5 years between the T|C and the TX releases (A bit over 2 years between the T|C and LifeDrive if you want to be pendantical and call the LifeDrive a proper handheld)

I think I'm MOST accurate in stating that:

A. Palm are beholden to the carriers (as Palm's new customers AND masters)
B. Beating a hasty reatret to the "hot" smartphone market gives Palm a return to 2003-era tech; smaller screen resolutions, less RAM, slower CPUs etc.

So it's just a natural since the carriers cited in reason A doesn't like wi-fi and Palm, as cited in reason B, doesn't like wi-fi (because it costs too much in terms of R&D expenditure/OS hackery), then it's very unlikely to appear anytime soon. Unless, of course, a continuous fuss is being made by notable media outlets (not
PIC) like Walt Mossberg, Cnet etc about wi-fi being AWOL on Palm's latest Treos.

P.S.
I would honestly choose a wi-fi-less Treo myself to save bucks & battery life *BUT* remember, all-you-can-eat unlimted, (relatively) cheap wireless data is pretty much the exclusive domain of the USA. European smartphone users are still suffering through exhorbitant pay-as-you-go data charges and would, as a result, prefer to have wi-fi.


Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: WiFi
ChiA @ 1/6/2007 1:07:33 PM # Q
Spicy billy goat_fajita bleated:
Most consumers dont need or want wifi in a handheld.

Is that why Nintendo has sold to consumers more wi-fi handheld games consoles in North America alone than Palm has sold Treos worldwide in the same period?
What of Sony with its wi-fi PSP handheld?

What of Nokia with its E61 smartphone, one of only many in its portfolio with wi-fi?
What of HTC and its collection?

Are you seriously trying to tell us that Palm selling its two million Treos without wi-fi knows consumers better than the conglomeration of companies who've sold at least ten times the number of devices with wi-fi to those same consumers?

They are paying out the nose for broadband (EVDO and UMTS) on thier cellular accounts and that makes Wifi a useless feature for 98% of the people that are buying these phones.

The cost of components required by a manufacturer to give a mobile device wi-fi are only US$10-20 per unit. One of the reason why we're finding wi-fi is being incoporated into a wider range of products, i.e. printers and cameras.

Wi-fi serves the same purpose as EVDO and UMTS (i.e. getting data in and out of handheld) but can hold two advantages:
- it's usually faster and less fiddly in the real world usage. We shall see what happens when serious HSDPA networks arrive on the scene
- it's cheaper or free compared to using the cellular data plan (I note that even the North American "unlimited" data plans are not without their foibles.)

It's nice to have a choice and and I believe most consumers and corporations want choice. I like to have a choice of which radio to use according to my circumstances. Currently, unlike its competitors, there is not one single Palm OS device which gives me a choice between cellular or wi-fi integrated within the device.

Judging by the increasing number of cellular phones with wi-fi, even by the number of wi-fi only "phones" for Skype or other VOIP, it appears that manufacturers have a much lower figure than your 98%. They are the ones, unlike yourself, who have a vested interest in making money from what they sell to consumers.

RE: WiFi
freakout @ 1/6/2007 8:53:58 PM # Q
hklife:
*BUT* remember, all-you-can-eat unlimted, (relatively) cheap wireless data is pretty much the exclusive domain of the USA. European smartphone users are still suffering through exhorbitant pay-as-you-go data charges and would, as a result, prefer to have wi-fi.

Indeed. It's the one area where the U.S. telcos beat out the rest of the world in value.

RE: WiFi (Palm has to get with the programme)
ChiA @ 1/8/2007 4:59:43 AM # Q
spicy billy goat fajita bleated
makes Wi-fi a useless feature for 98% of the people that are buying these phones.

Sorry to break it to you, but the technology industry disagrees with you and they're the ones who make the money selling their devices:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6238309.stm

More people than ever are becoming early adopters of technology

Driving the industry is the transition to the new breed, the next generation of technologies

people were "not only upgrading what they have but acquiring new technologies every year".

The adoption curve now is faster than ever. That early adopter segment of the market has grown

The cold hard truth is the fact that Palm has to keep up in the race or get trampled underfoot; it's certainly not leading now by any stretch of the imagination.

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Re: WiFi

Ba-gug @ 1/4/2007 7:04:42 PM # Q
I'll stick with my Treo 650 thank you very much.

"Hambug or Ba-gug, that's me.!"
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Brighthand just releaed their list of predictions for 2007

hkklife @ 1/5/2007 10:17:13 PM # Q
Would some of the, ahem, "regular voices" here on PIC care to take a crack at this?
I personally love speculating and playing the guessing game. 2007 does appear to be much more of an exciting year than 2006 was (truly a transitional/water-treading year in every way).

Ryan's working on his own "2006: The year in review" story to post in the next couple days on PIC. So sometime between now and then might be a good time for all of us to chime in with our own fearlessly bold'n brazen list of predictions.

http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=12719

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

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OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again

Gekko @ 1/7/2007 1:09:04 PM # Q

Had to post this in FF.



RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
Admin @ 1/7/2007 2:13:37 PM # Q
G - Why are you still using IE6?

What is happening? I'm not aware of any current issues and nothing has changed in the site code recently...

-Ryan

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
hkklife @ 1/7/2007 2:16:17 PM # Q
Gek;

Update to IE7. Don't live in the IE6 past any longer. Go with the flow! You'll love tabbed browsing, trust me!



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

PIC is FINE with IE6
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/7/2007 2:49:59 PM # Q
No problems here with IE 6.

hkklife: If it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. I tried IE 7 recently and HATED it. Different strokes (of Bill Gates' swollen member) for different folks...


TVoR

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
hkklife @ 1/7/2007 2:56:39 PM # Q
I was just giving Gekko a dose of his own "medicine"--you know, how he always tells people to turn in their PDAs for Treos and stop living in the past etc.

IE7 is a solid browser that's only....2 years too late. It's still sluggish in places (on my Core 2 Duo, 4gb RAM XP system) and still has some tragic page rendering errors but from a security & stability standpoint it beats IE6.



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

TomTom6 question
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/7/2007 3:00:12 PM # Q
I was just giving Gekko a dose of his own "medicine"--you know, how he always tells people to turn in their PDAs for Treos and stop living in the past etc.

I "got it", but I couldn't resist the urge to talk about "Bill Gates' swollen member". Funny how Geeko's now admitting that Treos don't work for everyone. Looks like he's caught Kirvinitis. Poor kid.


By the way, I just ordered TonTom6 based on your review. Hoping it will pair well with my (ultra-rare) Sony GU-BT1 Bluetooth GPS unit, but I have an iBlue 737 GPS Bluetooth reciever as well. Do you know why Semsons is not recommending use of the iBlue 737 with PalmOS devices?

http://www.semsons.com/tona5usawiih.html

TVoR

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
Gekko @ 1/7/2007 3:19:43 PM # Q

i'm using IE6 because I'm on a coroporate laptop and I don't need my IT Dept. busting my chops for changing their installed software.

also, i heard some horror stories about upgrading to IE7.

IE6 is working now but page refreshes are SLOWWWWWWW. i think it may be a rogue flash banner ad??????



RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
hkklife @ 1/7/2007 5:04:43 PM # Q
Voice;

I have NO idea whatsoever. My only guess is that perhaps since the ubiquitous SirfStar II/III chipsets power most of the newer BT-enabled GPS receivers this is just an incorrect message? Or maybe the Palm OS 5.x hobbled/flaky BT stack doesn't like MTK chipset devices? Or perhaps that since all Palm OS BT devices are 1.1 instead of 1.2 (the 700p and 680 are the only 1.2 POS Palms) they have issues?

Do note that in the TomTom setup menu there is a BT receiver setup and there are not too many choices offered, so I'd imagine that unless this one works with the "other" setting, it may present some issues in TomTom6. Also, Voice, when you get your TT6 software in, go to tomtom's website and see if you qualify for the free updated '06 maps.

At any rate, keep us posted on the results. The one thing I wish Palm had done on their GPS bundle was to incorporate an Athena-style charge plug on the actual GPS receiver itself. I have a couple of spare chargers laying around and it'd be nice to be able to charge the receiver with those. It's also a bummer that I cannot charge my Motorola k1m cell phone with the miniUSB end of the Palm cable (it gives the usual "unsupported charger" notification that lots of generic/non-RAZR accessories give on Moto phones).



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
SeldomVisitor @ 1/7/2007 5:13:34 PM # Q
Earlier today my FF session on PIC was "choking" but that in the past, and I believe today, was due to some particular ad site not serving its ad(s) fast enough.

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
twrock @ 1/7/2007 8:05:00 PM # Q
^^ I've experienced that multiple times. Since you can see at the bottom of the FF window what it is attempting to get, you can often get an idea of who is causing the lag. Seems to not be any one particular site, but in my experience it is often Mobihand. I'm sure Ryan could solve this problem easily if he just dropped all advertising. ;-)

I'm still waiting for the mythical color HandEra.
Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
Admin @ 1/7/2007 9:24:51 PM # Q
yes, the mobihand feeds sometimes cause the page to hang while loading. It's not really ads per se, its grabbing data from another server which can cause the page to load slower. I think they may have had some recent issues this weekend and was slower than usual.

I am looking at other options to speed up the pages.

The ads are a nessicary part of the site, If there were no ads paying the bills there would be no PIC!

-Ryan

RE: OT: PIC is Choking IE6 again
hoodoo @ 1/9/2007 11:03:35 AM # Q
The IE7 upgrade was a horrible experience for me, especially because Windows Update recommended it...Any new Microsoft software recently just chokes my laptop. I've since switched to Firefox and I am now much happier.



Reply to this comment

OT: Is Steve Jobs Screwed?

Gekko @ 1/7/2007 3:32:23 PM # Q

Note mention of Al Gore on the Board...


Everybody's Business
So Many Millions, So Little Body Armor
By BEN STEIN
Published: January 7, 2007

THE current state of corporate ethics, and the governmental and public policy response to that state, are so bewildering, so upsetting, so impossible to understand except in terms of the famous phrase, “Follow the money,” that it makes my poor old head spin.

Start with Steven P. Jobs. This worthy gentleman is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history. Avatar of Apple, potentate of Pixar, recalled to be the savior of Apple, he is a genius at technology and finance. He’s been well rewarded for it, with a fortune in the hundreds of millions, if not billions.

Apparently that was not quite enough. Recent reporting tells that in the period from about 1998 to about 2002, Mr. Jobs helped to choose the dates for some stock option grants in the form of backdating.

That’s where you — if you’re a big wheel at a corporation — get to choose the date and price of the options after you have seen when the yearly low was and seen how much recipients could make starting the options from times earlier on the calendar than the dates when the awards were actually awarded. It’s sort of like getting to pick lottery numbers after the winning numbers are drawn — and your stockholders supply the prize money.

Not only did Mr. Jobs benefit after his company did that with millions of stock options for his own self, but company records showed that the board (of which he is a member, of course) ratified that grant at a special meeting in October 2001. The problem is, an internal investigation has now concluded that there was no such meeting on that date. It simply never happened. It was totally made up.

That is, the options were awarded in a highly unethical way and then condoned — if I may use that term — in a way that would make John Dillinger blush.

Wait. It gets much better. After all of this happened, a special subcommittee of the Apple directors was convened, led by that pillar of rectitude who is trying to save us from the evil oil companies and coal miners, none other than the founder of the Internet himself, Al Gore, and by a colleague who is another bedrock of rectitude, Jerome B. York, late of trying to save General Motors for the benefit of Kirk Kerkorian.

The special committee found that despite the fact that the date of Mr. Jobs’s stock options was chosen ex post facto, that it was ratified by that made-up meeting, and that he later traded in those options, and some others, for five million shares of restricted stock (then worth more than $70 million), he was innocent of any wrongdoing and the board still had full confidence in him. Yes. I am not making this up.

Now there is an investigation into backdating of options at Pixar, the animation studio, when Mr. Jobs was running it, although the evidence so far is that the backdating did not help him directly. We’ll see. It pays to have some skepticism in these matters.

So now add Apple and Pixar to about 130 other large companies where backdating — which is wildly unethical self-dealing, with powerful tax and accounting issues and possible criminal implications — has been found. And note that in all the main cases, backdating was not found until much later by some very smart academic sleuths and gifted newspaper reporters.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/business/yourmoney/07every.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin



RE: OT: Is Steve Jobs Screwed?
SeldomVisitor @ 1/7/2007 5:19:37 PM # Q
So how come PALM has never made any comment, one way or another, about stock option backdating?

Are they leaving it to...you know...PalmOne or Handspring to say instead?

=========

No, I know nor suspect NOTHING - I'm simply curious why Silicon-Gulch Mainstay PALM has been TOTALLY silent about this - not even a "Not a problem!" or "We're looking into it" or "Tom Bradley Who?" out of them!

Does dumba$$ Geeko EVER post anything on-topic?
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 1/7/2007 5:59:29 PM # Q
This is PALMinfocenter, moron. Take care, Sweetie.

TVoR

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Apple reportedly calls on Cingular for cellphone

Gekko @ 1/9/2007 7:35:14 AM # Q

January 08, 2007

Apple, Cingular Reportedly Make Sweet Music
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple (AAPL) has chosen Cingular to provide wireless service for a new cell phone (paid subscription required). Details are scant, but assuming the WSJ story pans out - we'll find out tomorrow at Steve Jobs's Macworld Expo keynote - there are some big implications beyond what I covered earlier.

The first is that Verizon (VZ) Wireless and Sprint (S) are left out in the cold by this move, since Cingular uses GSM, a standard that's incompatible with Verizon and Sprint's CDMA technology. Verizon has the Chocolate and Sprint sells the Fusic music phone, but neither has proven to be an iPod substitute yet.

Expect a rapid rollout of the Apple phone around the world. GSM's a worldwide standard, dominating in all but a handful of Asian countries.
Two big questions: Will Cingular's retail stores carry the phone? And will it be subsidized if people sign up for a contract? If the answer to either question is yes, then Apple's sales of regular iPods could suffer - but as long as it sells more music players overall, Wall Street will be happy.
And will this phone sell? It all comes down to features. Apple and Cingular had a lousy experience with creating an iTunes phone before, and this one could flop, too. Gadget hounds dissed the Rokr, created by Motorola, as a crippled iPod, only able to hold 100 songs. Sony Ericsson proved today that it still doesn't get it, releasing a low-end phone that only stores 37 songs.

If this phone is a real iPod, people will love it. If it's a fake one, like the Rokr. people will diss it. It's 15 hours to showtime, folks - we'll know the answer soon.


Posted by Owen on January 8, 2007 at 6:23 PM


http://blogs.business2.com/beta/2007/01/apple_cingular_.html


RE: Apple reportedly calls on Cingular for cellphone
e_tellurian @ 1/9/2007 12:47:09 PM # Q
To offer wallet choices seems a unique opportunity to include more and exclude less.

On top of building a we-com industry we will need/want to build a place where we can interact with this choice too. Atlantis is one such place where the sea meets the mind.

E-T

e-tellurian

Completing the e-com circle with a people driven we-com solution
WiFi & BT? No strings attached
we_tellurian@canada.com

RE: Apple reportedly calls on Cingular for cellphone
SeldomVisitor @ 1/9/2007 12:56:04 PM # Q
Based on what's coming across the semi-live web page:

-- http://www.macrumorslive.com/

it will be interesting to see how The Next Great Thing compares to the now-officially-named iPhone.

None of the TREOs compare, of course.

RE: Apple reportedly calls on Cingular for cellphone
SeldomVisitor @ 1/9/2007 1:30:22 PM # Q
All I can say re the iPhone is...wow.

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