Okay, so I’m not impressed with PalmOne’s Tungsten T5. But you know what? I completely understand it.
The initial reaction to the T5, from myself and most people I’ve talked to, was, “So they take a Tungsten E, slap a better battery and Bluetooth in it, do a little gimmick trick with flash memory, and suddenly this is their top-of-the-line flagship model? Crazy!” But it’s not really that crazy, if you understand the thinking at PalmOne.
For a long time, we’ve been thinking that the Tungsten line was the “high-end” and the Zire was the “low-end”, with the Treos over “there” doing that smartphone thing. This is bad thinking, and PalmOne has said so all along. The proof is right in front of us. The Zire 72 is more advanced than the Tungsten E, and PalmOne told us right up front that this could happen. The Tungsten line is corporate-oriented. The Zire line is consumer-oriented. And the Treo line is phone-oriented.
The T5 looks like a disappointment as PalmOne’s new flagship product, only that’s not what it is. It’s just the top of the business-oriented line. The new PalmOne flagship is the Treo 650.
We’re seeing the beginning of a new strategy from PalmOne. Staggered releases instead of simultaneous (the T5 today, the Treo 650 October 25, and the Tungsten C2 later this winter), and a focus on the “connected” market. The new Treo will be the “darling” of PalmOne, at least for a while. The T5 is not much more than the stopgap it appears to be. PalmOne has said for over a year now that they believe that smartphones are the future and it makes sense for them to start de-emphasising handhelds.
So where’s the super-cool, Cobalt-based, WiFi-enabled handheld so many power-users have been lusting for? It could be the new C2. I’m starting to hear rumors of a C2 release this winter from other retailers. Details have been nonexistent, but here’s my prediction for the next Tungsten C:
- Casing and keyboard identical to an antenna-less Treo 650
- New PalmOne MultiConnector
- 320×320 screen
- 256MB of flash, set up identical to the T5
- WiFi and probably Bluetooth
- 1900mAH battery
- Cobalt 6.0
- $499.99
One Comment
I hope you are right on the TC2. I think my biggest complaint about the newest device is the name. Had they called it the TE2, I wouldn’t be upset. By calling it a T5, it gives the impression that it is better than the T3, which, clearly, it is not.
If the misnamed “T5″ is the top-of-the-line business machine, Palm missed the boat: no voice recorder and no vibrate alarm, large missions IMHO.
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