| Windows Mobile Treo debuts |
Sep. 26, 2005
 Palm, Microsoft, and Verizon Wireless jointly took the wraps off the much-heralded Windows Mobile Treo Monday in San Francisco. Palm CEO Ed Colligan noted that the "Treo Smartphone on Windows Mobile," which is Palm's first 3G product, offers the "Palm experience on top of Windows Mobile."
Colligan, Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates, and Verizon Wireless CEO Denny Strigl each spoke for about 20 minutes, followed by a demonstration and a Q&A session.
Treo trio: Strigl, Gates, and Colligan introduce Palm's new Windows Mobile Treo
 Colligan (photo, right) said the device was designed to work on Verizon's US cellular network, and that it will initially be marketed exclusively by Verizon. It supports CDMA communications and works with Verizon's EV-DO wireless broadband Internet access service, which offers download speeds averaging 400-700 Kbps.
 The Windows Mobile Treo will be made for Palm by Taiwanese ODM (original design manufacturer) HTC, Colligan added, and will be released for production in "early 2006." However, Colligen said, he is currently using it as his everyday phone.
Colligan declined to state a model number for the device. "We'll just call it Treo on Windows, for now," he said. The device was initially rumored to be the Treo 670, but more recently has been rumored to be the "Treo 700w."
Strong demand for Windows Mobile
Colligan said the Treo Smartphone was created in response to "customers who demanded a Windows Mobile experience end-to-end," and that it is the product of a two-year effort. A key factor in reaching the decision to use the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform was "the ability to differentiate on this platform." There is "a lot of running room to continue to add value on top of the platform," he added.
 Regarding Microsoft's partnership with erstwhile competitor Palm, Gates confided, "We lusted after those things that they did well, and wanted to combine them with what we did well."
Gates said that Palm's engineers provided valuable inputs that influenced some of the features of Windows Mobile 5.0. "The engineers got together immediately and said, "let's create a great product," Culligan added.
Gates noted that the new Treo Smartphone takes advantage of key Windows Mobile 5.0 platform and application features, such as Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile, and Internet Explorer Mobile. In addition to the expected features of email, messaging, and Web access, it will also provide "push" email and data features, based on mobile access to Exchange Server 2003 data, Gates said.
Hardware specs-ulation
According to Engadget, which last week published photos of a so-called Treo 700w bearing a Verizon logo and running Windows Mobile, key "confirmed" specs include 64 MB of memory, a one megapixel camera, and integrated Bluetooth wireless.
Although Palm has not disclosed hardware specs, the Windows Mobile Treo can be expected to be similar, from a hardware perspective, to the Treo 650. The 650 is based on a 312 MHz Intel PXA270 XScale processor, is equipped with 23 MB of user-available nonvolatile memory, sports a 320 x 320 resolution, 16-bit color-TFT touchscreen, provides SD/SDIO/MMC card expansion, and features a full backlit QWERTY keyboard with number pad. The 650 measures 4.4 x 2.3 x 0.9 inches, weighs 6.3 ounces, and is powered by a removable rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Given the more powerful embedded OS (Windows Mobile, vs. Palm OS), the Windows Mobile Treo will probably pack a faster processor and more memory (DRAM and Flash) than the Treo 650.
Linux Treo too?
In response to a Q&A session question regarding whether Palm is planning to develop additional Treo versions based on other operating systems, such as Linux, Colligan replied: "No. No, we don't need another operating system. Do not take developing a product on a whole new platform lightly."
Interestingly, Palm software spinout PalmSource -- which was recently acquired for $324 million by mobile browser maker Access -- is known to be developing a mobile phone software stack based on Linux, which implements Palm OS functions as middleware on top of a Linux OS platform.
Since PalmSource has stated that it is targeting lower-end "feature phones" -- a market that Microsoft's Windows Mobile software platform ignores -- it is unclear whether Colligan's answer means that Palm has no future plans to use the PalmSource-developed Palm/Linux hybrid in lower-end feature phones.
Motorola, the #2 mobile phone maker worldwide, makes mobile phones both based on Windows Mobile and based on Linux, and says it provides multiple software platforms, according to the specific requirements of differing markets and mobile carriers.
Market perspective
Gartner reported earlier this year that Windows CE pushed ahead of PalmOS to become the top OS shipped in PDAs worldwide in 2004, and recently noted that Palm's quarterly PDA market share plummeted from 41.8 percent in the second quarter of 2004 to just 18.8 percent in the same quarter of this year.
Both Windows Mobile and embedded Linux are struggling to take marketshare from market-leader Symbian. Market analyst IDC reported in July that Symbian currently dominates the market for "converged mobile device operating systems" and will gain marketshare through 2009. Windows and Linux will also grow during that period, reaching about 17 percent marketshares by 2009, IDC said. In 2004, Symbian held 55.9 percent of the market, with Windows Mobile in second place at 12.7 percent, and embedded Linux third at 11.3 percent, IDC said.
Overall, however, the high-end "converged" mobile phones market -- generally called "smartphones" -- continues to represent a small, though rapidly growing, share of the entire mobile phone market. ABI Research estimated last year that 98 percent of the mobile phone market still represented lower-end devices based on proprietary operating systems, but that by 2009 the smartphone segment will grow to nearly a quarter of all handsets shipped.
Gartner forcasts that sales of mobile phones in general will surpass 1 billion units in 2009, and that smartphones will reach the 200 million units mark one year earlier, in 2008.
Here are two additional news items relating to Palm's new Windows Mobile Treo, from PCMag.com:
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