Treo In Trouble?
If you ask anyone about their Palm Treo, they either love it or they break into a litany of woes about the device. Since I have given up on the device, it is hard to speak from personal experience. Katie, dropped Treo in favor of a Blackberry and there were at least five other people who did the same. As we have read and reported time and again, Treo has issues. Especially some of the new ones – and those issues have become AN ISSUE for Palm. The company today warned that its sales for the fiscal first quarter will be lower than what it was expecting.
“We will soon address the market dynamics responsible for our first quarter revenue shortfall with two major product launches, one that improves our pricing position and both which extend our carrier relationships to global markets,” said Ed Colligan, Palm president and chief executive officer.
A case of too little, too late? Quality issues leading to customer defection, combined with increase competition from Nokia (E-Series phones), Motorola (Q), Danger (Sidekick 3) and RIM (Pebble) equals trouble! Thoughts?
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They’re also going to start running in to more competition from the HTC-manufactured equipment, assuming they’re any good – the Tytn/Hermes series stuff is now rolling out, with Windows Mobile 5 and what looks to be a decent keyboard. Throw in about every wireless connectivity method under the sun, and it’s a decent looking bit of kit.
I know at least one person that semi-loves his Treo, but remarks quite frequently how often the BT stack just falls over in a heap. Someone said it better than me, but I don’t notice my mobile phone (Nokia 6310i) – but my friend notices his Treo.
I think it’s RIM (Pearl), Moto has the Pebble.
I also migrated from the Treo to the BlackBerry this year when I concluded that the Palm OS is dead. The migration was not particularly smooth, but the BlackBerry is a decent device and one that I believe actually has a future. I’ve got a bunch more posts about the migration and issues I ran into on my blog filed under “Mobile”.
Man, am I the only one who has been using a Treo forever and never had a single problem with it? I still love it. Have the 700p right now and it’s nails.
I’ve had two Treo 650s. The first broke and I lost some data (hadn’t backed up in a few days, my fault), but Cingular replaced it with a new one.
I think generally it’s a quality device and I prefer the Palm OS to the Windows OS or Motorola. If Nokia made a slim device with a full keyboard, I would probably switch, because in the past all my best phones have been Nokias. The Palm is a bit too clunky and has a few too many quirks, but I have had Blackberry and prefer the Palm.
Quote:If Nokia made a slim device with a full keyboard, I would probably switch:
There is the Slim (though FAT)Nokia E61 with a full keyboard and all the connectivity you need. Add to that BB connect and MS exchange support and you are actually looking at an excellent device with push!
The whole category is kind of lame. It’s the classic example of a hybrid device being inferior to dedicated equivalents. If you need email, get a Blackberry. If you want a phone or a camera, have your pick. If you need to access the net, use a PC. If you want something cool to demo, get a Treo, Q or Hiptop.
I love the potential of my Treo. But, while Palm has done a great job with the hardware, the Palmsource software (e.g. PlamOS) is criminally defective. Palm has already stated publically they are moving away from Palmsource, because of their quality and delivery issues.
I was on my third Treo before I just gave up. I went out and purchased a no-frills phone that can just field phone calls. The features aren’t worth it if you can’t take a simple phone call.
I’m on my second Treo in less than a year, and both models had defective headphone jacks, volume problems, keyboard freezeups, and enough resets to baffle anyone who reads DC Comics. :)
Palm is showing its hand by constantly rushing out new models, but they don’t realize that Treo users want their models to work the first time, and will get tired of constantly trading up to the new hotness.
I’m happy with my carrier (Sprint), so rather than lose my plan, I’ll probably drop the Treo for the PPC-6700 and go Windows Mobile next round.