Twelve Black Code Monkeys

I know that I concentrate on this one phone when there are others out there, but from all I read the Treo 600 and 650 have the most media buzz about them. Is PalmOS the best platform for a smartphone? I don’t know. There are certainly other OS’s out there (Windows Mobile and Symbian) that have larger development communities and phones from major manufacturers who use these. A lot of PocketPC phones also have had Bluetooth and even Wifi (if not built in at least available via expansion card) for quite a while now. Why then am I just concentrating on the Treo 650′s new release? It’s a good question. For one, I’m somewhat biased due to the fact that I have a Treo 600. I’m also biased because I’ve had owned Palm PDA’s, including the Palm V and a Clie model who’s number escapes me. I’ve played with PocketPC devices here and there, but never owned one for an extended period. Aside from this, my inclination is to like Palm because it is not the 1-million ton Gorilla that is Microsoft. In fact until recently it was looking more and more decentralized. Not quite open-source, but the software company PalmSource is separate from the hardware company Pa1mOne, and there were other hardware developers out there like Sony, IBM, Handspring, etc. But more recently there’s seems to be more consolidation. Sony has given up on the PalmOS and is no longer making Clie’s. I’m pretty sure IBM isn’t making their PalmOS PDA’s either. Pa1mOne of course bought Handspring and now they are one company. There are still plenty of third-party developers, but the situation is looking more and more like Microsoft and it’s very tight control over its mobile OS marketplace.

Several events have happened with regards to the Treo 650 have started to erode even more hope in this product. Some have to do with Pa1mOne itself, but others have to do with decisions primarily made by its mobile carrier partners.

1. Pa1mOne decides to have a graduated release of the Treo 650. Sprint gets it in November of 2004, and none other get it until 2005. It’s the end of January and the second mobile carrier to get it, Cingular, has yet to, and it looks like they won’t be for at least a week or two more. T-Mobile will not get until at least May and Verizon will also be late. I’m not sure how much of this is Pa1mOne and how much are the carriers, but I just think it’s ridiculous to have different carriers not be able to have access to basically the same device at the same time. It causes some real resentment and there’s nothing that customers can do because most are locked into contracts that are very costly to walk away from.
2. Sprint disables DUN (Dial-up-Networking) via Bluetooth. Many users, even power users won’t care about this. What this does is allows you to use your mobile phone as a modem. Doing this means that you can basically do data for free (if you are getting unlimited minutes at the time you connect). You don’t get the data from Sprint to your phone, but rather you are just making a phone call and the data travels over that line to the phone, which is then passed to a laptop. Maybe it’s six of one half dozen of another in some ways because with digital phones, everything is really data when you come down to it, although a voice call takes up less bandwidth then Sprint’s higher-speed data network. However, you can still use a cable to connect your phone to your laptop, the only thing you can’t do is to use Bluetooth (wireless) to connect. Not a big deal, but a stupid limitation. Sprint eventually backtracked after a big outcry that propagated over the Internet and promised a “fix” but has yet to come out with one. A user eventually created a hack that did just that, though it is of course unofficial.
3. Memory Deficiency. After the Sprint Treo 650 came out, it was soon discovered that the way it managed memory wasn’t as efficient as the Treo 600. Because it contained the same paltry 32MB of memory (12MB of which were taken up by system files), the effective result was that the 650 was actually a DOWNgrade when it came to memory! The fact that Pa1mOne could not add even a few dollars worth of memory to alleviate this problem and give Treo users more breathing room angered many of its customers including this one. While the 650 is definitely better in some ways, it still lags behind competitors in others, such as memory, ability to handle Wifi (or even have Wifi built in), it’s still somewhat low resolution VGA camera, etc.
4. Now that Cingular is finally coming out with the Treo 650, it seems like they are ignoring the whole debacle with DUN and the Sprint Treo 650 and are planning to disable it as well. Or perhaps they saw how Sprint took a momentary lump for disabling the feature but still hasn’t issued their fix and a lot of people have just forgotten about it. Why they would care enough to disable a feature that only makes DUN a little more convenient (but doesn’t make it impossible by any stretch) is beyond me. I can understand why these carriers might not want you to have DUN if you aren’t paying for a data connection, but just making it a little less convenient doesn’t make sense. I think one big problem is that these carriers have distinct marketing groups. They have power users who are going to take advantage of these things like DUN, and Wifi to circumvent the fees that these carriers normally charge for the equivalent services that their own networks provide. There seems to be an inherent conflict of interest here with these companies battling with some of their customers. But I think they are fighting the inevitable. Eventually we’ll be using very high-speed, high-range wireless networks that blanket the country (the world) and they will use Skype or Voice Over IP technology for voice calls and the same data network for data. I guess until then, these carriers will still be butting heads with the power users who want to push the technology to its limits which also means ostensibly robbing the carriers of money. I would argue, though, that this group of users is very small compared to the overall customer base and also that these users, if they could not take advantage of these loopholes, would mostly not be paying the extra money in order to do the things they are trying to do with the loopholes but via the normal use of the phone.

So, with all this taken into account, I wonder how wise it is to concentrate on this one phone. I would certainly be willing to try out a PocketPC phone, but not having the disposable income to buy a new cell phone every couple of months as some on these mobile phone forums do, I’m probably not going to be looking at one any time soon – unless of course I start getting some sent to me for review purposes, but so far that hasn’t happened. While PocketPC phones have some advantages like those I’ve listed (as well as tighter integration with Windows on your PC, if you happen to use Windows, generally faster processors, etc.), they have disadvantages as well. For one, they generally are a bit bulkier than the Treo, although of course there are exceptions to this. They also tend to be a bit pricier as well. I’m sure there are other pros and cons that I’m missing, and for different users, different platforms will be the right decision. I’m not saying that either is right for everyone. People need to look at their specific needs in a phone/data device and figure this out for themselves. All I’m saying is that the idea of the Treo (or any PalmOS smartphone) being the only phone to look at is being slowly eroded from my mind. Part of this is because I simply can’t buy the phone yet due to what I think is probably a marketing decision or exclusivity deals by Pa1mOne, T-Mobile, or both. I know that PocketPC phones have the same issues and this is why many power users simply skip the branded phones and go for generic unlocked ones (but pay a price for this). Then again, it doesn’t appear that there are such unlocked ones available anywhere for consumers, only branded ones. Perhaps that will eventually turn the tide for some as they get sick of waiting for their own carrier to come out with a model. If I’m waiting months and months for T-Mobile to come out with a Treo 650 and there isn’t even an unlocked one available, maybe I’ll just get fed up and go over to a PocketPC phone. This is the risk that Pa1mOne faces by offering the phone to some but not all who want it. There just seems to be something inherently unfair about that, don’t you think?

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