palm Centro

1946 Views 5 Replies 2 Participants Last post by hUssain, Aug 28, 2007

dona83

Discussion Starter · Aug 28, 2007

Palm's trying to bring sexy back... faced with competition for their aging, merely decent looking Treo smartphone against the much sexier Apple iPhone, Blackberry 8800, and to a lesser extent the Samsung Blackjack and Motorola Q, they're trying to claw their way back to the game by getting a nicer looking phone. The new Centro probably brings them almost up to Samsung/Motorola territory, and at $99USD with contract it may sell quite well at the very attractive price point albeit probably with a hefty contract with data plan. Then again the iPhone is $499/599 with hefty contract and data plan. This is the low cost smart phone they've been talking about for years although this phone looks like it should've come out a few years ago. The textured black plastic looks cheesy to me tho, although it will require less maintenance than the piano black finish on the iPhone and 8800. On an upside it does run PalmOS, not sure if it has a touchscreen, but it does support EVDO Rev A. No word on a GSM version yet.

On a side note... I find myself trying to use to finger gestures on Google Maps for PalmOS lol... is that a sign that I really want something?

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hUssain

· #2 · Aug 28, 2007

I used to be a big fan of Palm (I had a Palm III, Palm V, Tungsten E), my opinion of Palm and it's new device are in line with that of engadget, they are going in the wrong direction and simply not being as innovative as they used to be (since the Treo 600, the Treo is pretty much the same phone over and over)

Rather than taking the route to innovation, they are taking what seems to be blackberries route (which in my opinion is a bad direction, it's just not what a smartphone should be)

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dona83

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 28, 2007

Blackberries are highly successful though. I don't think RIM markets their devices as smartphones rather portable e-mail and internet devices. One of my friends has an 8800 and another has a Pearl, they're very nice phones. My position is that I invested so much in Palm software that it would be a step back to move to a new platform. Then again since I carry my laptop anywhere now, the software I have is not all that useful anymore... except Bejeweled 2. Nothing beats playing Bejeweled on a touchscreen. I heard PopCap is trying to build iPhone native versions of Bejeweled .. that's be schweet.

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hUssain

· #4 · Aug 28, 2007

dona83 said:
Blackberries are highly successful though.

That's true, but in ottawa (I'm not going to clame it across the country) the majority of blackberries are government issued (it's issue to pick out, the camera is gone). It's a very easy and flexible system for IT groups to modify, I would be interested in knowing if they are successfull with individuals, and how successfull compared to windows mobile, palm, and symbian.

I don't think RIM markets their devices as smartphones rather portable e-mail and internet devices.

It isn't marketed as such, but RIM doesn't make the categories, it is great at what it does, but not innovative.

My position is that I invested so much in Palm software that it would be a step back to move to a new platform.

I understand where you are coming from. Palm OS 5 (current) has been out for 5 years. OS 6.1 sort of vanished when PalmSource was bought out by Access. And they are now working on Access Linux Platform(ALP). The next OS Palm (PalmOne, to distinguish it from PalmSource) chooses to release will most likely break that compatibility, since they have to choose a new OS, OS 5 is quite outdated, and there is a huge area of innovation that palm, once a pioneer of the field, is shying away from.

Here is the article I spoke of.

A CEO replied to the later And it's great to see that Palm is at least trying to work something. I hope it's not too late for them.

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dona83

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 28, 2007

hUssain said:
That's true, but in ottawa (I'm not going to clame it across the country) the majority of blackberries are government issued (it's issue to pick out, the camera is gone). It's a very easy and flexible system for IT groups to modify, I would be interested in knowing if they are successfull with individuals, and how successfull compared to windows mobile, palm, and symbian.

I don't think smartphones are very successful yet with individuals. The iPhone could be the most successful at this point. I love the BB 8800 tho... but high data prices is barring me from going that route. I only pay $10 for 10MB through the Navigate plan on my Treo because I don't need push mail... the Navigate plan isn't available on BB, only Palm, Windows, and regular phones. I wonder what data plan Rogers will provide for the iPhone...

It isn't marketed as such, but RIM doesn't make the categories, it is great at what it does, but not innovative.

Businesses usually just want things to work. Is it the best? Maybe not, but it works.

I understand where you are coming from. Palm OS 5 (current) has been out for 5 years. OS 6.1 sort of vanished when PalmSource was bought out by Access. And they are now working on Access Linux Platform(ALP). The next OS Palm (PalmOne, to distinguish it from PalmSource) chooses to release will most likely break that compatibility, since they have to choose a new OS, OS 5 is quite outdated, and there is a huge area of innovation that palm, once a pioneer of the field, is shying away from.

For me, I admit my Treo doesn't give that high and mighty power trip it gave me when I first got it, but it does my day to day tasks quite well and I have not to this date found a good suitable replacement phone. I like my touch screen, like my hard keyboard, not fond of Windows Mobile. I know OS 5 is outdated but much like OS 9, it still serves me well. Btw PalmOne is palm again, lower case letters, palm.

Thanks for the articles.

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hUssain

· #6 · Aug 28, 2007

dona83 said:
I don't think smartphones are very successful yet with individuals.

In Canada and the US, that's quite true, my father has had 2 smartphones (both HTC) for the past 4 years, imported of course. Fido/Rogers told my Dad "What's a smartphone?" it just hasn't penetrated the market as much as Europe and Asia.

For me, I admit my Treo doesn't give that high and mighty power trip it gave me when I first got it, but it does my day to day tasks quite well and I have not to this date found a good suitable replacement phone. I like my touch screen, like my hard keyboard, not fond of Windows Mobile. I know OS 5 is outdated but much like OS 9, it still serves me well.

Windows Mobile in my opinion is a bad attempt at bringing the windows experience to a mobile device (or as they use to call them PocketPC).

Btw PalmOne is palm again, lower case letters, palm.

I do realize PalmOne bought the rights to the palm name, though I didn't know it was lower case, it's sorta like the original xbox, is it xbox, XBOX, Xbox, xBox(that was really bad interpratation). I just used PalmOne to make it clear that I was not talking about PalmSource. I think it's funny how they split Palm into 2 companies, and then renamed the hardware one back to it's original name.

I think engadget is correct in saying that palm should pull an apple or a few apples. The Centro is a nice low-end smartphone, should be nice with the 18-25 market

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