During the DigitalLife show in New York today, Palm introduced the Treo 680, its first Palm OS
smartphone for GSM carriers in two years. The new model is the companys fourth
Treo overall this year, however; following the Windows Mobile Treo 700w/wx and
Palm platform Treo 700p for CDMA carriers Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and the
Microsoft-based GSM Treo 750v just made available through Vodafone in Europe.
CEO Ed Colligan emphasized througout the press conference introducing
the 680 that the new model isnt aimed mobile professionals like past Treos. But
rather, as he put it, Palm wants to capture what Palm labels the mobile
accomplisher market, which it said is 9x the size of the traditional smartphone
target audience.
Palm defines mobile accomplishers as college-educated cell phone
owners who are frequently on the go and away from their PC, but still want to
strike a balance between their work and personal lives. Theyve thought about
getting a smartphone before, but havent because of fears it would be too
complicated to use or expensive.
Although Palm didnt give any price specifics, Colligan said that when
the 680 starts to enter the market in a month so, it will be the companys
lowest-cost Treo yet. It will also be the easiest to use.
"Suffice it say, with more functionality and more capabilities, it
will be very competitively priced in the market than any other smartphone
product today, relative to the kind of capabilities this product will bring,"
Colligan asserted. "We really tried to push the design to make it more phone
like too, so that after using the product, [youll find] its really a no
compromise phone as well as an incredibly powerful computer."
As with the 750v, the 680 loses the Treos signature antenna, making
it decidedly sleeker-looking than the Treo 650, which it replaces. According to
Colligan, the new smartphone’s cellular-radio is even more powerful than the
earlier models anyway, so it should deliver even better performance.
Its GSM/GPRS radio is also quad-band (850/900/1800/1900), making it a
world phone. Palm said it expects 20 international carriers will pick up the 680
by June 2007. With it, Collgan said he hopes to expand upon Palms success in
the U.S. and the Americas to around the world. Recent rumors and leaks place
Cingular Wireless as the operator which may deliver the 680, as well as a
version of the 750v, first in the U.S.
While the device sports 2.5G EDGE data cellular-data networking, it
doesnt implement any type of 3G; nor is there integrated Wi-Fi or support for
Palms expansion card that would add the capability. Lack of 3G and Wi-Fi (yet
to find its way into any Palm smartphone) are probably due to price
considerations.
Another causality is the quality of the 680s camera, which drops down
to VGA - the same as the 650 - from the 1.3-megapixel types offered by other
Treos released this year.
Additional specifications include the same 320 x 320 pixel resolution
touch screen as recent Palm OS Treos, 64 MB user-available memory, a 312 MHz
Intel PXA270 processor, and Bluetooth. Its 1200 mAH lithium-ion battery is
supposed to last up to 4 hours talk and 300 hours standy time.
Palm also said, at 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.8 inches (111.8 x 58.4 x 20.3
millimeters) and 5.5 ounces (157 grams), the 680 is the smallest Treo yet. This
is due to the battery being smaller and the sculpting of the device, which,
according to Palm, makes it fit more comfortably in the hand.
The company is also giving consumers a choice of color for the first
time. Theres going to be 680s available in Graphite, Crimson, Arctic, and
Copper.
Software
To make the new Treo even easier to use, to help
encourage feature phone users who think smartphones are to hard to use to make
the move up, Palm has upgraded the user interface and introduced a new five tab
phone application. In addition, the
Address Book and contacts are now built directly into the phone application.
5 Tab Phone App
The full User Guide is on the device, knowledge base articles will
sync down when needed, and a most-recently-viewed feature has been added. So
when you hold down the launcher key you can see the last several applications you used.
DataViz Documents To Go v8 is bundled for Microsoft Office document
viewing and editing compatibility. The e-mail app, VersaMail, has been upgraded
as well, as has the picture/video software. Pocket Tunes is included for playing
MP3 files. It is upgradeable to the Deluxe version so you can play DRM protected
content.
At launch, a bundle featuring a 1 GB SD card, stereo headset and
Pocket Tunes Deluxe will be available with a free one month trial of Yahoo!
Music Unlimited.
The 680 supports both audio and visual streaming media in the WMA and
WMV formats.
Theres a Voice Memo application that even allows you to set what you
record as a ringtone.
At the press conference, Palm showed off the new Google Maps
application for the Palm OS, which is compatible with the all Treos built on
the platform going back to the Treo 600. The free software delivers directions,
local search, moveable/scalable maps, location satellite imagery and live
traffic updates.
Theres also a threaded chat application that tracks an SMS
conversation as if it was an IM exchange, so you can view everything in one
place. TypePad is a mobile blogging tool from a company called Six Apart that
allows you to, well, blog text and images from the Treo.
SMS
Threading
Palm has also updated the Web browser, improving it "quite a bit on
this version of the device, " Colligan said, for faster performance and more
accurate delivery of content.
Promotion
To support the roll out of the Treo 680, Palm is
going to roll out $25 million advertising and marketing campaign. The main tag
line will be Not Just A Cell Phone. A Treo. "Because a Treo does more and
gives you access to all the things you really care about," Colligan said.
The campaign will include partners like Yahoo!, eBay, Google, and
Flickr. `So youll see ads that read "go places, google things." or "do you
yahoo! like this?" or "flickr this" or "winning feels good on eBay" for example.
