Treo 700p Merges Palm OS with EVDO

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Confirming months of speculation, Palm, Inc. early this morning introduced the Treo 700p, essentially a Palm OS version of the Treo 700w, the company's first windows Mobile smartphone, offered by Verizon Wireless since January. The 700p is Palm's first Palm platform Treo in ages - 3 million Palm-based Treos have shipped since the roll out of the evergreen Treo 650.
Unfortunately for customers of GSM carriers like Cingular Wireless and in most other markets around the world, the 700p - like the 700w - will only be available in a CDMA edition (at least for now). The 700p is, however, Palm's first Treo to support EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) 3G networking for data transfer rates averaging 400 to 700 kilobits per second (Kbps).



Palm CEO Ed Colligan said, "This flagship product the second new smartphone Palm will introduce this calendar year—offers our world-class usability combined with a smarter phone, wireless email, built-in browser, and rich media capabilities all at blazing speeds on the EvDO network."

It is said Palm plans to release at least two more smartphones before the end of 2006. We’re not clear as to whether that includes GSM/UMTS broadband editions of the 700p and 700w at this point or other rumored new models.

Sprint and Verizon are the carriers slated to deliver the 700p. While Palm hasn't said exactly when or for how much that'll be, rumors indicate at least one of these operators may ship the 700p later this month.

Broadband
"EVDO support becomes an enabler," Palm senior product manager Steve Sinclair said to PDAStreet during a hands on demonstration, "delivering all the great things a big data pipe can; faster Web browsing; streaming video; or just being able to access and download large documents while you are away from your desk."

He said the data feeds Palm’s getting on this product are comparable to DSL – in the promised 400 to 600 Kbps range. And, unlike previous CDMA Treos, the EVDO-enabled 700p allows incoming calls to come through when you're browsing the Web or downloading e-mail rather than sending said call to voice mail.

The 700p supports dial-up networking (DUN), which allows users to leverage the smartphone as a means to access the Internet or corporate network from a laptop via a Bluetooth or USB connection. With Macs, however, Palm explained to PDAStreet DUN support is available via Bluetooth only.

Wi-Fi is still MIA in the Treo series. But to Palm, it really shouldn’t be missed.

"No more looking for a Wi-Fi hot spot, let alone paying for a Wi-Fi hot spot," Sinclair asserted. There's a simplicity and convenience in knowing you can get broadband access wherever you are, and you pay your carrier a nominal fee to have this feature on your regular cellular bill, he added.


In the past some carriers disabled DUN from their Treos. Sinclair acknowledged "that has happened. With this product we're working with the carriers to support this service."

To better take advantage of high-speed broadband, he told PDAStreet Palm updated the Blazer browser to version 4.5. Sinclair said it delivers content faster with improved rendering through better JavaScript handling, caching, a new - optional - mode to remove all pictures, as well as better audio and video streaming.



We asked about banking and commerce site support. Sinclair said they do support SSL encryption, so many of them are compatible, but he wouldn't go so far as to all are supported.

Specifications
The 700p includes a 312MHz Intel XScale processor, Palm OS 5.4.9, and 128 MB of non-volatile memory (60 MB available to the user), which will survive a complete power drain like all recent Palm devices; a vast improvement on the 650's mere 23 MB of memory.

It also has a Secure Digital (SD) card slot, with support for up to 2 GB or storage. Sinclair said Palm is already testing 4 GB cards, and the 700p should even support larger-sized cards eventually.

"Suddenly you've got a product with 4 GB of memory available, it becomes a place for anything you want," Sinclair said during our demonstration.

The smartphone measures 2.3 x 4.4 x 0.9 inches and weighs 6.4 ounces. It has the familiar QWERTY thumb-keyboard, a speakerphone, infrared port, ringer/silent switch, four application keys, and a 5-way navigator.

It looks more like the 700w than the 650.

Treo 700p's camera (for picture and video) - a 1.3 megapixel type with a self portrait mirror - while still far lower resolution-wise than many other smartphone models from other vendors, is much improved over the 650's VGA model.

Since the 700p is a Palm device, and not a Pocket PC phone, like the 700w, Palm was able to bump the resolution of the display to 320 x 320 pixels, compared to the Windows Mobile model's 240 x 240 pixel screen. Microsoft's square resolutions are limited to that resolution or the higher 480 x 480, which no vendor has chosen to go to yet.

Sinclair said the 700p is the first Treo you can trickle charge (up to 500 milliamps) via the standard cable out of the box. It comes with a removable Lithium Ion battery.

Enhancements
Palm has brought many enhancements to the Palm OS since its split with PalmSource. This is especially important now that the platform is aging and PalmSource is leaving the Palm OS - as it is - behind to pursue Linux. The same holds true for the company's foray into Windows mobile with the 700w, where we were told it had far more freedom to make tweaks than other handset manufactures.

Sinclair emphasized Palm wouldn't have had it any other way even. And indicated to us, the company wouldn’t have gone in that direction were they not given free reign to customize the platform for the 700w.

Jim Christenson, Palm's Director of PR, said to PDAStreet, "When we announced the 700w, we talked about the secret sauce or the secret ingredient that Palm put into it. That was all centered around customer usability. And that has really been the mantra as we've really gone forward."

Palm extended some of the 700w's enhancements to the 700p.

They've brought the ignore with text feature to the new model, for example. So when a call comes in and you don't want to take it, you can send a quick SMS message to let the person on the other end know you’re in a meeting or indisposed.



Also, the ringer switch now vibrates, you can personalize ringtones, and - to the satisfaction of many users, no doubt - the screen only dims rather goes dark during a call to conserve battery life.

Palm added a voice memo application to the device as well: You can take a voice memo and convert it to a ring tone, or shoot it off via MMS or e-mail even.



You can also create a slideshow with audio on your 700p. The slideshow can use music or you can choose to annotate it with voice notes and even text. The music part is enabled by Pocket Tunes; which allows you to transfer audio from your PC to a PC card.

"And, of course, with Pocket Tunes, you always have the option to upgrade to the Deluxe version," Sinclair said, so you can access digitally protected content like Naptster to go or Rhapsody. "What we wanted to do was open this up to users of the Palm OS,” he added.



To demonstrate video capability, Sinclair accessed Netflix from the 700p and we watched a trailer for a movie in a Windows Media Video format via an applet Palm built for the Blazer browser. It streamed to the device, with nothing downloading to the 700p, as would have happened with past Treos.

Messaging
As far as messaging, Palm focused on making it easier to address or compose MMS or SMS messages. So, for example, "We've added smart addressing that takes the same type of concept of first letter last name short cuts that you use in dialing a phone number, you can now do that in SMS, MMS and in e-mail," said Sinclair.

You can also add voice messages to MMS messages or add voice memos you've already recorded.

The 700p ships with the latest edition, 3.5, of Palm's longtime e-mail application VersaMail. The application remembers recently used e-mail addresses; there's a new sort button on the main inbox page; AutoSync can now be scheduled for any combination of mail, calendar, or contacts; and there's improved scrolling.



VersaMail also supports up to 8 e-mail accounts and it is compatible with Exchange ActiveSync out of the box for small to medium size businesses.

We asked about BlackBerry Connnect - RIM's program to deliver push e-mail and data services to non-BlackBerry handhelds. Sinclair said Palm is working with RIM and is in the certification process in a more general sense. As for more specific products (the 700p, for example), Sinclair added, "It is up to the carrier to decide whether or not the BlackBerry Connect service is released on product. I can't speak to that on this product today."

In the ROM is DataViz Documents To Go 8.0 to enable users to view and edit native World, Excel and PowerPoint files and attachments on the Treo 700p. Since the release of the 650, DataViz added support for PDF files to Documents To Go.

"You can either carry it with you, you can download it over the air, and you've got the right application to either view it or use it," said Sinclair.

For more on the Treo 700p, see Palm's product page for the smartphone.

Treos Place
Today, Treos account for 30 percent of the U.S. smartphone pike, with Palm growing shipments by 111 percent over last year to 564,000 last quarter alone. While it has the largest share in the fledgling North America smartphone market, Palm barely registers in most European and Asian regions today.

It is devices built on the Symbian platform that dominates smartphones worldwide with 69 percent share, according to Canalys—with 54 percent of all smartphones shipped coming from giant Nokia—and then those built on Microsoft's Windows Mobile in second place with 12 percent.

And yet, Palm’s Treo handsets has other smartphone models beat when it comes to brand loyalty, according to research firm Brandimensions, which measures consumer sentiment for specific devices, including the Treo, RIM's BlackBerry handhelds and HP's iPAQ Pocket PC Phones.

Back in March, Brandimensions released a report where it said it searched over 150 million Internet sites and analyzed relevant consumer comments posted online between April 2005 and February 2006. The results concluded that while BlackBerry has the largest market share in this segment, it lacked a strong brand loyalty among its customers.

Overall, consumers felt that Treo line - which generated far more discussion than BlackBerry or HP's iPAQ phones- is perceived as a superior device; citing greater functionality, including camera and video playback.