Palm has had a rough go it over the passed little bit. There have been numerous rumors about them being bought out. They just recently announced a crippled, Linux running, $599 laptop-like device called the Foleo, a device they are touting as a smartphone companion device. (I am still scratching my head on that one). It is becoming difficult to take Palm seriously any longer.
Just when you think, however, that Palm is about to go the way of the Dodo, they come out with new device that possibly could breath some life into company that used to reign supreme in the PDA world.
The device in question is called the Palm Gandolf that is a very grainy picture of it up top.
The Palm Gandolf is clearly still in the rumor mill stage, however, the folks over at Treo Central seem to think that it is the real deal.
I am not going to do a feature to feature comparison to the BlackBerry because it either runs the new Palm OS or possibly Windows Mobile Smartphone and their really is no comparison. What the Gandolf is, however, is cheap. Projected to sell for $199 it is really cheap. Sprint supposedly will carry this thing and chances are you could get the Gandolf for free if you sign up to the right plan.
If Palm plays their cards right and release this thing amidst the hype of the iPhone, a device with a $500 or $600 price tag, they could pick up residual sales from folks caught up in that hype but not willing to shell out a couple car notes or a months rent on a cell phone.
Your assuming it will run the new Palm OS. I doubt it. I expect it to ship with the same old tired OS the 755p runs. Like everything Palm, there will be nothing new here, expect another loser product from a once great company.
Has potential, release with both POS (or some improvement thereof) and WMobile and you have a winner…
Palm just needs to call it quits.
Its the ugliest smartphone I’ve seen since smartphones first came out.
Well, at least it would be thinner than the current Treo line, which would bring it up to date on that factor.
However, it looks pretty ugly, and there’s no compelling reason to choose it over the competition. It’s pretty sad if the only selling point for the unit is the fact that it will be cheap, maybe even free. Plus, it’s also sad if Palm has to run to Sprint to debut this device, as Sprint is the carrier that is in a world of hurt right now.