My faith in Palm restored
I've wanted to write this post for a few weeks now. You see, I have been a massive fan of Palm/PalmOne since 1997. I have also been quite dissapointed with my Treo 650 for the past 10 months or so (I've had it for a year).
My main beef with the device is that it feels like a product from 2001 (which in a way it is), and this goes for the 700 as well. Add to that a, in my mind, lack of vision from PalmOne when it comes to new products.
No more.
The consumer oriented Treo 680, announced 2 weeks a go, is the smartest move PalmOne has made in a long, long time. Firstly, it's a conusmer oriented phone! Good move, there are more consumers than corporate customers. Secondly, it's avail in orange which is cool. Thirdly, it's a quad band, i.e. it can be used all over the world.
And that last point is a huge deal for us "multi national" Palm afficinados.
It's by no means an earth shattering "feature" in the history of cellphones. Quad's have been around for ever. But for those of us who live in the US, and thus a mostly CDMA environment, and regularly travel to other parts of the world (my own international destinations are usually England, Sweden, and sometimes France) having just one phone to carry around is big news. Especially when the phone is also our email tool, cal, and everything else.
Why did it take Palm so long to announce a truly useful phone? Who knows. And had it supported WiFi it would've been even better. Maybe next year.
My main beef with the device is that it feels like a product from 2001 (which in a way it is), and this goes for the 700 as well. Add to that a, in my mind, lack of vision from PalmOne when it comes to new products.
No more.
The consumer oriented Treo 680, announced 2 weeks a go, is the smartest move PalmOne has made in a long, long time. Firstly, it's a conusmer oriented phone! Good move, there are more consumers than corporate customers. Secondly, it's avail in orange which is cool. Thirdly, it's a quad band, i.e. it can be used all over the world.
And that last point is a huge deal for us "multi national" Palm afficinados.
It's by no means an earth shattering "feature" in the history of cellphones. Quad's have been around for ever. But for those of us who live in the US, and thus a mostly CDMA environment, and regularly travel to other parts of the world (my own international destinations are usually England, Sweden, and sometimes France) having just one phone to carry around is big news. Especially when the phone is also our email tool, cal, and everything else.
Why did it take Palm so long to announce a truly useful phone? Who knows. And had it supported WiFi it would've been even better. Maybe next year.
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