Guess What's Official - Treo 755p

There has been a lot of buzz and chatter about the Treo 755p smartphone (when will it be available, what features does it include, etc.) Well, now it's "officially official" with Sprint as the first carrier, available in stores May 14th.

 

 

Here are some specs and features:

• Internal antenna, slimmer form factor and mini-SD slot (up to 4GB SD card)
• Two colors - "Midnight Blue" and "Burgundy"
• Built-in Microsoft Direct Push Technology that delivers automatic updates to Outlook email as well as support for Global Address Lookup and IT policies like remote data wipe
• Integrated Google Maps built into the ROM, right out of the box
• Sprint Mobile Instant Messaging - chat with AIM, Yahoo! and Windows Messenger

For more details:

http://socialnews.palm.com/release.aspx?hid=6

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo755p/

One new thing to check out is the Google Maps feature built into the Contacts page (personal favorite) that allows you to open Google Maps directly to a contact's address, and easily get driving directions or find local businesses.

Let us know what you think.

Rob Katcher - Product Manager

Comments

[RT]

I think Palm has loss their edge and are no longer innovative. I have been a Palm user for 11 years now and feed up with the half baked expensive product and marginal upgrade with products that should have been the original release. I bought the Lifedrive which turn out to be a disaster and didn't last more than a year. So I moved on to the Treo 700p which has been as disaster as well. This devices are way to expensive for what we are getting and Palm seems to be more interested in milking customers than being innovative and releasing quality products. I have lost all faith in Palm and done supporting them. It's time to take my money somewhere else.

[John]

This is bad. Maybe for a first-time Treo owner this may be appealing, but as an upgrader this is a downgrade. MiniSD? This alone will prevent me from ever buying another Palm device.

What are you guys doing out there?? Palm has turned into a living, breathing Dilbert cartoon and Wally is heading the useability dept.

Please spin off Handspring! At least they had some innovation.

[simon]

I'm well dissapointed, to be honest. As longtime Palm, Psion and Nokia user, I was planning to switch from my E61+Tungsten to Treo platform, as soon as it arrives to Europe and brings decent wifi.
The only advantage against Nokia today (as I see it) is the heap of available applications and good reputation for ergonomy.
This way, I only wait for D-Day, whether you present some major improvements (from user side of view, available quickly AND compatible within EMEA) and if not, I will be choosing another platform to simplify my days :-( ... for which I feel sorry as you were always very initiative and creative company.

[RE]

I like the new form factor but am thoroughly disappointed in you Palm. I will not be purchasing this phone or any other future Treo due to my experience with the 700p. How can you replace the 700p before you get it working as originally advertised? Ridiculous.

[Ken]

I'll just keep my 700p and keep hoping for a fix for it. I can't justify spending another huge amount of money with a company that doesn't support it's products.

[Easy]

The incremental upgrades from phone to phone suggest resources are being diverted to upcoming products that will really be defined as innovative!! (With a look of desperation) RIGHT PALM???

[RobAnd]

Please Palm!!! When will you launch a TREO with a big screen. I am a TX user and I would like to upgrade to a Treo, but with a TX screen size and of course WI-FI! Even Apple is launching the IPhone with a big screen and where is palm?

Another bad thing is the infrared port on the side. I use noviiremote to control my home TV, DVD,... and holding a Treo in landscape mode to use it as a remote control is not a good idea. And why is the Treo infrared so underpowered?

Please palm give us other Treo form factors with big screen and do not take off features that we all depend on (ex.: SD)

[Garman]

In the face of all the responses to the 755p I want to thank Palm for their integrity in posting them right under their proud announcement for it. How many companies would do a commercial launch and in real time let user feedback be shown without bias towards itself. That is something I don't think any detractors can argue with.

However, I must say that I am disappointed not in the 755p per se but at the almost pacifist way of responding to any of it. It is like a kid being called names every day and not saying or doing anything. I have not seen such a lack of a response from a company on platform designed expressly for interactivity. There must be something coming down the road so extraordinary that must have you acting like guests to a surprise birthday party but if there is not or what comes out is similar to this announcement I can't imagine what the future holds in terms of customer satisfaction.

[Richard S]

Looks nice!!...but no thanks. I don't see any reason to upgrade my 700p--nothing innovative here!Fix the lag in the 700p and I'm golden.

[The African Nerd]

The burgundy is oooo so beautiful. by the way, we are giving away 2 of these. Learn more here
http://www.gx-5.com/specials/winatreo755p.htm

[Carl W. Brooks]

The 755p is an option for Treo 650 users and below. My disappointed is in the fact that Palm is stuck at the 64MB usable RAM ceiling on the Treos. We need to see a minimum of 128MB or 256MB of usable RAM on the next Treo (after the 755p).

[RichC]

If I were a new buyer or coming from the 600 or 650, the 755p would be a nice upgrade. Unfortunately, the new model isn't much more than a face lift. I think I'll wait for a new OS that offers multitasking, improved bluetooth and a better camera. (I can pass on wifi but know a few users who wouldn't mind that built in too) IMHO ... besides a better footprint, it's the same ol' same ol' phone that was released last year?

[Dave]

I am stunned, and not in a good way. I've been keeping an eye on this blog for a few weeks now (well, since it started), and the level of disappointment I see in user posts should be considered unacceptable to Palm. By my count (when I started this rant), this should be the 30th post for this blog entry, and I don't believe any of them has shown anything more positive than apathy.

If Palm is of the opinion that they are being massacred by the "power users" on their own blog, I'm afraid they've missed something. I think they misunderstand the expectations of the average cell phone user, and the reasons why a cell phone (or PDA) user will upgrade. Also, given the communications, policies, and product line enhancements of the past few years, I think these expectations and upgrade reasons are misunderstood.

My view, and I would refer to myself as a fairly average cell phone user, of when to upgrade is this:
I need to upgrade when:
- My phone broke (of course)
- I have a new requirement that the hardware cannot handle (I needed bluetooth on the 650, for example)
- My carrier is throwing money at me to upgrade (such as Verizon's "new every two"), and there's something interesting worth upgrading to

My view of the expectations of the average cell phone user would be that if I spend the extra money for a smartphone, it should be able to do everything out of the box that the lower-priced feature phones can do... including voice dialing, special ring tones, a good keypad lock, reliable simple clock alarms, etc. These are all things that can be done with the Treo, but the out-of-the box features are beat by the average feature phone (such as my wife's LG). For that matter, even the Windows Mobile-based Treos appear to get the basic features of the feature phones down better than the Palm OS Treos. Sure, there are more features to a Treo than there are to a feature phone, such as a full-fledged PDA and all sorts of add-on software, but those extras are why we pay more for a smartphone than a feature phone.

One other expectation that comes into play with smartphones has to do with their extensibility and expected lifetime. Buying into a smartphone not only involves buying into that phone's accessories (just like with feature phones), but also buying into the software that is used with that smartphone, be it installed on the device itself or on the PC that the device synchronizes with. This level of complexity is similar to the purchase and use of a PC. Speaking of only the software... PC users are certainly familiar with the concept of being able to upgrade their PCs to the latest applications and OS patches (or sometimes major revisions). Given that the smartphone is very similar to a PC, there is some level of expectation that the smartphone will be somewhat upgradeable for a reasonable length of time. The difference that exists today is that PC software upgrades are possible for several years (how long as Windows XP been in service, complete with patches and enhancements?), whereas smartphones are only really supported for a year, maybe two, if we're lucky. Perhaps the time has come to reconsider how long smartphones are supported for, and perhaps how that support is paid for. If paying for support for my smartphone costs enough less than upgrading to a whole new model that I wouldn't upgrade to otherwise (based on my requirements above), then getting that support for my smartphone is a wiser decision, and Palm could have a new revenue source with happier customers.

As far as the 755p goes, I think it is clearly aimed at people who want to upgrade from something earlier than a 700p (or in my case, I would still have to own the Treo 600 to consider the 755p a proper upgrade), or people who are not already Palm or smartphone users. I don't think that it is being marketed in that fashion, though... it really looks like the message is "Here's our latest Treo... you know you want it... it's so much better than any previous Treo." Then again, maybe I'm not viewing the right target media outlets... and perhaps I'm reading into things a bit too much.

Certainly, the level of passion shown for the Treo lineup, even in these blogs, shows that there are some good ideas behind the Treo, but those of us who love those ideas hate to see what appears to be stifled innovation ever since those ideas really came together well in the Treo 600. Still, kudos to opening up a blog and improving communication. I certainly hope there's more improvements being done internally to support the improving communication. Maybe we'll see more positive comments then.

[Hengeem]

Yea if there is a startup company in smartphones out there looking for ways to develop products and business modle all they need to do is look at what Colligan has done with Palm and just do the opposite. Doing this they will instantly be #2 behind Rimm.

[Thomas Boerkel]

We need such a Treo in Europe with UMTS high-speed data access! We are always being told, that Palm OS could not do UMTS because of multiple datastreams (no multitasking). But better a Palm OS UMTS Treo with some limitations than no UMTS at all! Windows Mobile is not an option for me.

[James Nightshade]

I really don't understand the commenters who complain about having "hundreds of dollars" worth of old SD cards.

I have a few old CompactFlash cards (64 MB and 512 MB). They cost pretty much when they were new. But nowadays, cameras generally do not take CF cards, so these are useless to me.

Should I complain? No! The newer types of flash memory are smaller and cheaper. They are better in every way.

And the new kinds of memory cards will get even better in the long run. Since these formats are supported by the market, you can expect that new cards will continue to get improvements in speed and capacity, rather than being gradually phased out of the market (like CF).

Take a look around online... You can easily get a 2 GB Mini-SD card for under $20, or a 4 GB Mini-SDHC card for less than $40. Mini-SD is already at the same price or lower in price than SD.

If you were willing to spend "hundreds of dollars" on memory cards a few years ago, why complain about spending $20 today to get a superior product?

[araby-k]

Please,I demand the sale in the Japan of Palm Treo and the re-advance to the Japan of Palm Inc.

[Julio]

Hi, I'd like to know if Palm has plans to introduce the 755p in other countries, besides the USA.
Here in Brazil we have only the Treo 650 (too old) and the 700wx (WM, not good).
There are lots of people here that would like to have a Palm OS based device on CDMA networks.
Thank you.

[SMuRS]

Here is my big worry with the addition of the new 755p--it seems to me that this is just a hardware/software revision of the buggy 700p. It stops just short of an admission that the 700p is indeed critically flawed. I am on my thrid 700p, and I'm afraid the ROM update is so late because the 700p is beyond repair. Why else would Palm release nearly a carbon copy a mere year later? They know they can't "fix" the 700p and they want it off the market as fast as possible. I hope i'm wrong, I have been a loyal palm user since the the "pilot" but I plunked down $600 for this dicey phone and have been quite disappointed.

[Tommy]

What's the point of putting Google Maps in ROM of device that got no GPS?

[Tim]

Ouch. Palm folks, just read the comments on your own blog. It's really kind of unfortunate for you. I realize you are struggling to regain some better appearance in the market these days but you're going to have to work faster. I know it hurts a lot of people in the industry, but the dreaded iPhone is coming in 1 month. Have you gone to apple's website recently and watched their flash demo of the iPhone interface again? If the actual product comes even close to that demo Palm is in big trouble. You guys better get moving with that new OS. I've been a Palm loyalist for 8 years, but I will be switching to the iPhone until you guys can innovate again.

[Rob Katcher (Palm, Inc.)]

All, thanks for the passionate responses. To answer a couple questions …

1. Why switch to mini-SD? Yes, current Palm OS users are accustomed to SD cards, and we understand there is some transitional pain. We think most customers will prefer the sleeker 750 form factor. Plus, like one commenter posted, mini-SD cards are pretty cheap and other offer additional advantages: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2007/05/guess_whats_off.html#comment-69067284

2. Will this product be available on Verizon and other CDMA networks: http://blog.palm.com/palm/2007/05/guess_whats_off.html#comment-68943612?

We announced Sprint as the first carrier for the Treo 755p. There is no exclusivity with Sprint, and we expect it to be available on additional CDMA carriers.

[Tam]

I also would like to have a Treo with a TX screen size. All Treo have exactly formfactor! I don't know why palm thinks that every body wants a keyboard instead of a big display. I have a Treo 650 and I miss too much a larger screen to read articles in pdf format or watch movies.

[Concerned Fan]

Any time a new Treo is announced, I'm one of those cheering.

I'm hoping the new Treo models will continue to become cheaper, allowing the Treo to capture a larger customer base.

Unfortunately, without expensive high-end Treo models, the Treo is losing its reputation for being on the cutting edge.

Didn't Treo have a profitable experience with the Black Tie 650?

Please come up with a very expensive Treo that is only available directly from Palm (not avaialbe through Cingular or Sprint). Make it very expensive!

[Marc]

I totally agree with a larger screen Treo. Palm could launch at least one future model with a 320x480 screen. I am a Treo 650 owner but I have played sometimes with a TX for surfing the web and reading documents. The TX screen is much more comfortable to use. The keyboard has the advantage of better one-handed navigation but this is not a feature for me. I do prefer a Treo with the TX huge screen.

And about the infrared, I am also a NoviiRemote user and I can say that the Treo 650 has a really underpowered infrared transmitter. Palm could use the same power as on standard pdas for the Treos.