The Official Palm Blog

Palm travels to the Film Independent's Spirit Awards

On the heels of our announcement last week of the AT&T Palm Centro smartphone, I attended the Film Independent's Spirit Awards in Santa Monica this past weekend. There were lots of celebrities in attendance and it was a nice little break after helping to launch Palm's newest smartphone. It wasn't all play though...I was there to provide Palm smartphones to several of the evening's presenters and nominees, many who walked the Oscar's red carpet the following night...so don't be surprised if you see Eva Mendes walking around with a new white AT&T Centro.

I also had the opportunity of meeting Dennis Hopper, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Allison Janney, Shareeka Epps, Maria Bello, David Alan Grier, Dennis Quaid, Jason Bateman, Marisa Tomei.

I tried to sneak some shots with my Palm Centro with hopes of moblogging from the event, but it was a no go unfortunately (they're kind of strict about this). So photo from house photographers only.

-Paul Loeffler

Network Outages - Part Deux

Thank you all for the responses to my earlier blog post on network outages - I sincerely appreciate the comments and perspectives. Indeed, the purpose of my post was to generate discussion and highlight that there are alternatives to the use of third-party Network Operation Centers (NOCs).

Generally, there are two options for deploying a mobile platform:

• Use a third party to provide a NOC
• Leverage your existing infrastructure

As I originally wrote, we believe that the best solution is to eliminate third-party email servers, third-party NOCs (and their hassles and costs), while maximizing simplicity and control. As we've seen with RIM's recent service interruptions (it appears that another occurred again yesterday), there are challenges with having an additional point of failure. These challenges, coupled with overall lack of control, can cause tremendous productivity loss to IT departments and mobile workers.

Feedback that we've received from a number of IT departments of companies ranging from all sizes indicates that maintaining control of their platform and infrastructure is one of their most critical requirements. Can non-carrier related outages and other issues arise with in-house only deployments? Yes, but then the control for the solution/fix becomes the primary responsibility of the IT department - not a third party (e.g. in circumstances when using a NOC deployment).

In addition to control, another big issue for IT departments is quantifying "Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)." Indeed, it can be more art than science as there are so many variables to factor. According to a study by Wipro Technologies on the Microsoft Windows Mobile site, Windows Mobile (without third-party email servers and NOCs) has a TCO of 20-28% less than RIM.

There's no question that for some organizations, the third-party NOC functionality and manageability benefits are important. But for many organizations, eliminating the third-party NOC is worth considering.

Mark C. - Senior Manager, Enterprise Solutions

AT&T Palm Centro smartphone, ready and now available

 

The rumor mill has been turning about the eventual availability of a GSM version of the Palm Centro smartphone since the Centro device was first announced back in September...today's it's a reality on AT&T's EDGE Network for $99.99 (after mail-in rebate and two-year service agreement).

The AT&T Centro smartphone rolls voice, messaging (text and instant), email and internet surfing* into a small lightweight device. And we have new colors for you -- immediately in "Glacier" white with green keypad accents -- and it will be available soon (in about a month) in a second color, "Obsidian" black (yep, it's different than "Onyx" which is available on Sprint). There are also some new features the AT&T Centro will be sporting right out of the box including:

• XM Radio Mobile - Allows you to stream commercial free music from just about any genre (hip-hop, pop, jazz, country and more); all for $8.99 per month.
• MusicID (a personal favorite!) - Helps you identify unknown songs by simply holding your Centro smartphone up to a speaker - it's a really cool way to figure out song information for tunes you aren't familiar with (title, artist and cover art, if available, etc.); all for $3.99 per month.
• AT&T Mall - You can buy ringtones, wallpapers, and other multimedia content and download over the air to the device.
• Push to Talk (PTT) - Not really new to the AT&T Centro since it was recently made available on the Treo 680 Update 2.11 for AT&T, but new and cool enough to be worth mentioning again! PTT works like a walkie-talkie to talk to an individual or a group of up to 29. The app also includes "status" icons so you can tell which of your family and friends are available before you call. Users can purchase unlimited PTT minutes with Nationwide Plans for $9.99 per month per line and with FamilyTalk for $19.99 per month per group (two to five lines). Customers also can use PTT on a pay-per-use basis for $0.15 per minute.

In addition to these applications, which we'll be discussing in more detail during the weeks to come, the AT&T Centro of course still has the features you are familiar with from the Sprint Centro including instant messaging, Pocket Tunes Deluxe, a color touch screen, and full keyboard.

For details on the AT&T Centro, including availability, check out www.palm.com/centro and www.att.com.

And for those of you outside of the U.S. who are interested in the GSM Centro, our friends across the "pond" announced earlier that it will be available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Phil M. - Product Line Manager, Consumer Smartphones

Links to reviews coming soon...

(a picture of "Obsidian" black)

     

*Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost.

Migration Season

I have been hearing lots of predictions about the growing trend of people moving up from feature phones to smartphones, and I have been paying more attention since we introduced the Palm Centro smartphone back in October. Analysts also expect more people to be purchasing smartphones in the future as opposed to traditional mobile phones. In fact, according to analysts at IDC, smartphones accounted for 11% of all mobile phone sales in 2007 in the U.S., and this is expected to increase to 36% by 2011.*

Why the shift from feature phones to smartphones? I think it's because people increasingly want to be connected to their friends, family, colleagues and their online lives - and it's getting easier and more affordable all the time. Cooler form factors and fun colors don't hurt either.

I recently sat down with Stephane Maes (Palm's VP of Product Marketing) to get more details about this trend and what it means. He talked about how as smartphones become easier to use and more affordable, we will see new groups of customers move into the market - particularly younger adults (20-35), women and people with lower household incomes. Stephane also shared with me some interesting early registration card data for Palm Centro purchasers that supports this trend, including:

• A large majority of Centro customers are stepping up from traditional mobile phones. In fact, 75% of those surveyed had previously been traditional mobile phone users.
• Almost double the number of women (now 38%) and more than double the number of people under 35 (now 52%) are among our Centro customers, as compared with our recent Treo models.
• Affordability is making a difference, with nearly three times the number of people with household incomes under $75,000 among Centro customers (now 46%).
• People are signing up for and using the data plans in higher number than ever before - a full 95% of Centro customers surveyed bought data plans.

The market is still young, but it's encouraging to see it opening up new customers to the benefits of smartphones. It will be fun to see what new kinds of applications and uses come from this migration. And it's a nice sign for Palm in our efforts to reach out to new customers.

Check out the video interview with Stephane, and let me know what you think.

-Paul Loeffler

*Source: Worldwide Converged Mobile Device 2007-2011 Forecast Update: December 2007

Why risk a network outage?

As many of you are aware, the Research In Motion (RIM) Network Operations Center (NOC) had a nationwide network outage yesterday - for the second time since April 2007. That means Blackberry email came crashing to a halt for many BlackBerry customers. The impact of that network outage on productivity, business and communications was tremendous - millions of emails were delayed. All of this made me wonder whether the majority of people out there even know what a NOC is, let alone realize that their email is going through one. All email (business and personal) sent through RIM"s servers are routed through a NOC. When the NOC fails, your email stops working.

If a NOC does crash, users, IT departments and carriers who are using Blackberry devices have to sit and wait for the NOC to be fixed. They don't control the situation (or the fix). Let's not forget to mention the added costs of subscribing to the service.

Better to switch than fight?

We believe that the best solution is to eliminate third-party email servers, hassles, and costs, while maintaining simplicity and control. For instance, Microsoft Exchange Server provides a reliable foundation for a smart wireless deployment that leverages an organization's existing infrastructure - no middleware or third-party servers. Simply add a Palm smartphone and you have a voice and email solution that will keep you in touch and productive, without the NOC hassles - or the NOC outages.

Mark C. - Senior Manager, Enterprise Solutions

My First GPS Experience - Palm GPS Navigator with Garmin

I've never used GPS in any fashion before (probably because in my opinion I have a pretty solid sense of direction), but I thought I'd try out the Palm GPS Navigator with Garmin. Overall it was a good experience and while it wasn't a life-saver in terms of getting me from point A to point B, it definitely made getting around easier. It helped with things my sense of direction could never do, e.g. telling me what gas stations are the closest and selling the least expensive gas (kind of a big deal given the current prices of gas these days).      

I used it in multiple circumstances and really liked the portability (the GPS puck is pretty small, so it was easy to take with me in the car and walking around on foot). I took it with me to run errands in a location I wasn't really familiar with, used it on my commute home from work to pick the path of least resistance, (i.e. the least amount of traffic) and also used it to explore neighborhoods throughout San Francisco on weekends.

Details about features of the Palm GPS Navigator, as well as a couple of videos of my experiences, are included below (in case there are others out there who have yet to try out a GPS solution). Also, I am continuing to test it out so this is not meant to be a review, just sharing my personal experiences. I will add links to the reviews of others as they become available.

-Paul Loeffler

Some of the features included on Palm GPS Navigator:

• Voice-prompted, turn-by-turn directions right to the front door featuring Garmin Mobile XT software.
• With the latest NAVTEQ U.S.and Canadian maps, find fuel, restaurants, parks, airports and other destinations. Garmin Online is also included to help you avoid traffic tie-ups, view the weather forecast, locate the cheapest gas prices, and more.
• Specifically for Palm only smartphones, integration capabilities such as contacts search and direct dialing.
• No subscription fees, just one-time purchase (retails for $209)! Also, as the carrier is not involved, you will receive strong reception even in rural areas.
• Easy setup--just insert the microSD card preloaded with maps into your compatible Palm smartphone for automatic installation and connection to GPS receiver.

(Trying out turn-by-turn directions and gas prices)

(turn-by-turn directions and restaurant search)

Sprint Treo 755p Software Update

Sprint Treo 755p smartphone customers - there is a software update that is available for installation to your device. The software update is a tune-up that improves audio, stability, software quality and device usability.

For information and to install to your device, visit the Palm product support page.

-Rob K., Treo 755p Product Team