About the Treo Future

After his recent European tour, Ed Colligan has continued to spread the palmOne message across Asia where he was interviewed by CNETAsia.  Of course CNET once again questioned him about the rumors of a new OS for palmOne devices but I also found some other noteworthy comments.

About the Treo 650 in Europe and Asia (GSM)
You'll remember all the brouhaha last week about the Treo 650 supposedly being 'delayed' for release in Europe.  As Ed points out however the GSM release of the Treo 650 in Europe and Asia will have pretty much the "same time frame as in the US" sometime "early next year".

About the Treo within palmOne
The Treo accounted for some "50% of palmOne's revenues last quarter" while the other 7 devices manufactured by the company across the Zire and Tungsten lines accounted for the rest. 

When asked about growth projections for the Treo Ed pointed out that while they "don't break out each one of the product areas in particular" the company is "looking at a 36% year-on-year growth" - this is roughly in line with IDC smart phone compound annual growth rate projections of 37% between 2004 and 2008.  He acknowleged that "market pundits say something more in the range of 60 or 70 percent for converged device growth, year over year" but that the company is "trying to be reasonably conservative about that" while expecting to "see significant growth in the Treo as well".

About the Treo Family
While the Treo family currently consists of the 600 and 650 models it is obvious that other models will be slated for release in 2005 and in this respect Ed pointed out that "Sure. Absolutely. We're working hard. We've got a very broad roadmap, trying to develop some new products."  As palmOne has mentioned repeatedly, the Treo is a category defining product and so the company is "trying to set a baseline with the Treo" but one must remember that "it's a new market, new foray for us in the sense of making cell phones, converged devices and so, we really need to get the expertise to do that well."

Ed provides a small hint of the possibilities for an expanding Treo family which "can expand in a number of different ways" with "the most important probably along the application line and also form factor and design - making a broader product line over time" and concluded with the strong statement that "you can expect us to do that".

About the Treo Competition
Interestingly Ed singled out Samsung as its "biggest rival" [in Asia] even though the company does not currently make a smart phone and perhaps this statement has a lot to do with Samsung being a PalmSource licensee and developing their own PalmOS smart phone to be released sometime next year.

I also like the way that Ed on the one hand categorised mobile phone manufacturers into those that are primarily producing "feature phones" such as Motorola, Nokia and SonyEricsson but do not have a real smart phone and on the other manufacturers such as HP whose "designs are more wireless PDA's than they are phones".  He further points out something that I have thought about for some time in that "with the HP products, and even RIM, most people carry two devices [the unit plus a mobile phone]" while with the Treo "as people use it they carry one device".  I fully agree when he states that this will be "an important differentiation from a design aspect over time".

About getting a Treo Smart Phone just Right
As many tried and failed attempts can attest, Ed notes that smart phones "are by far the hardest to design of anything I've ever been a part of".  I can now also understand the design of the Treo 600 and 650 a little better as he explains that "when you do mobile products, there are a series of tradeoffs between all the different features, form factors, battery life, complexity, screen real estate.  You need to tradeoff a lot of them to make great winning products that people really love to use and want to carry with them anywhere."  Again he also smartly points out that "you see a lot of products that come to market with just a little something wrong with them - it doesn't take a lot to make it not successful".

About the other Treo OS rumors
I don't think that Ed could have been any clearer on this issue when he states that "we consistently look at other operating systems - that doesn't mean we're going to ship products on them".  Furthermore "we think [the PalmOS] is great" and "we're going to stick with that for now".  Finally, from a business perspective people should consider the reality that "it's a massive effort to go and develop on another platform. It's not a trivial thing. It's not a decision we would make lightly, and we really have to feel like we are going to swing the market in a completely different direction to do it".

Considering the wide scope and rich content of the interview you really have to wonder why CNET once again focuses on just the PalmOS issue with the title of its article "PalmOne president: We've considered Microsoft, Linux"...

Treonauts help build a better future...