The $1.2 Billion Treo Question
While our Treo Memory Survey and the results this week strongly conveyed Treonauts' attitudes and sentiment towards the memory of the Treo 650 there is one critical question that remains unanswered. Namely: Knowing what they know today, will existing and prospective Treonauts still go out and buy a Treo 650?
For many (me included) this will prove a tough question to answer. As I've mentioned repeatedly I do consider both the Treo 600 and 650 (even with 32MB of memory) to be the best smartphones available on the market today and this view was very strongly shared by some 88% of existing owners who took part in the survey. I believe that the question is tough to answer mainly because on the one hand of course most of us are just dying to get a Treo 650 and on the other we are so maddeningly irritated that palmOne did not invest an additional meager $6 or so to double the memory on our new smartphone.
Yesterday, palmOne took action and announced that they will work on a system software upgrade to increase memory efficiency on the Treo 650 and that in the meantime any person buying one will be entitled to a free 128 SD card upon request. A quick poll following this announcement however demonstrated an overwhelmingly negative sentiment towards this solution with a combined 69% of respondents stating that they are either "Not satisfied at all" (47%) or "Barely satisfied" (22%) with it and the remaining 31% are either "Very satisfied" (7%) or "Somewhat satisfied" (24%).
So then, how should our wallets vote? If we buy a Treo 650 we're effectively telling palmOne that it's OK for them to make - shall we say - not very good decisions, to take us for granted and to not meet our needs. If we don't buy it we'll sure make palmOne quite unhappy but we'll suffer the same fate because we'll just be miserable without our Treo 650 in hand. We could also delay our purchase but then we'll probably be grinding our teeth in the know that others are out there enjoying theirs. So, basically, we love our Treo (the product) but currently have a grudge against palmOne (the company).
Either way, potentially 2 million Treo 650 unit sales in the coming year with a retail value of some $1.2 Billion hinges on the decisions that we (to buy or not) and palmOne (to upgrade or not) will make.
Comments
Some thoughts on the Treo 650 as a device (even if it is memory challenged.)
I am a T3 user. I have had a Palm device on my hip since the Pilot days and I am ready to go down to one device attached to my belt. That device will be the Treo 650 with a 2GB SD card. I will have my Internet, E-Mail, cell phone, MP3 player, Handmark Express, voice dialing, spreadsheets, calculator, alarm clock, check book, 32mb dictionary, maps, games and planner all in one device.
Yes, I would like more memory in the Treo 650, but remember -- I am moving from 52MB of memory on the T3 to the 16ish (23*.67) on the Treo 650 -- because of the overall utility of the Treo 650. I almost moved from the T3 to the Treo 600 but could not stomach losing both my T3 screen clarity and size. With the clarity issue resolved (and all the other improvements), I am now ready to move once the Treo 650 becomes availble on ATT/Cingular.
A 128mb Treo 650 would have been my perfect device, a 64mb Treo 650 would have been near perfect. A sort of 32mb Treo 650 is still good enough for me to lay out the cash and move from my T3 / Bluetooth Cell phone combination.
As a soon to be Treonaut, I will be happy with my Treo 650 purchase. I know many of you Treo 600 power users out there are disappointed in the memory aspect of the Treo 650 -- but there are many of us who will consider it -- a very smart choice.
(So when are they going to start making handhelds with user increasable internal memory, a la PCs?)
By the way -- keep up the great work on Treonauts.com.
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