The Treo 650 Memory Promise
As the company had promised after the Treo 650 memory debate, palmOne has created a page on their website where all existing 650 owners can redeem a free 128MB SD card (while supplies last).
As I had mentioned at the time, I think that it is great that palmOne took the matter seriously, showed goodwill and offered some form of resolution but I honestly don't see how a 128MB SD card would be truly valuable to those people who have a real issue with the amount of memory on their Treo 650.
I am hopeful that palmOne has realized that it was ultimately a mistake to release the 650 with only 32MB of memory and I know that many will be anxiously waiting to see if this will be corrected in the GSM version.
However, as Levi at Twelve Black Code Monkeys smartly points out in a recent post discussing innovation (or lack thereof) in the US mobile phone industry, the whole memory issue may not altogether be 100% palmOne's fault but an indication of the increasing power of carriers to dictate the whole features and functionalities (or lack thereof) of the phones that they offer. If this is the case however, I can't think of a better way for the remaining carriers who will be offering the Treo 650 to create a competitive advantage than by demanding that palmOne develop a 64MB version for them.
Treonauts demand fairness... 
Comments
Great, so they're keeping their word (or half of it). But where is the ROM upgrade?? As they said in their official announcement, they will:
"Work on a system software (ROM) upgrade that will increase memory use efficiency to allow users to recapture most of the NVFS overhead space currently lost to them;"
I agree that a 128 MB card giveaway is pretty useless since 1. most Palm owners already have cards that are that big or larger and 2. a memory card is no good if you don't have the free memory to load the programs each time you want to use them and 3. it can be very annoying waiting for a program to load from the card into the Palm's memory.
So where's the upgrade folks????
Well, I tried. The site requires the serial number and a mysterious ID number. The serial number is so small on the back of the phone, that it took many tries to get it right. The site does not explain what the ID is and it wouldn't accept any of the other numbers underneath the battery. So, I called the phone number listed, which is PalmOne. I was connected with a lady whose English is marginally better than my dog's. She didn't understand me and I didn't understand her. She put me on hold three times because she had no idea what the free memory card was about. She actually went to their website to check it out. When I asked where she was located, she said "Asia".
Bottom line--she did not know what the ID number is so told me to call Sprint!
Bravo! Great performance, PalmOne! At the beginning of the conversation, she asked my email address so they could send me a satisfaction survey. Can't wait to get it!
The ID number they request is on the back of the CD Sleeve (like it states on the site). It works fine when you enter that.
I finally saw that and tried, but it did not take. I called PalmOne back and the rep said that they were having trouble with the site not working. He put it through for me manually.
I too had problems, since nobody told me that saving the sleeve from a CD was required. I called and talked to a very nice guy who didn't know anything about 'free memory card'. After 5 minutes on hold, he came back and placed the order.
There can be no excuse at all for needing this ID, other than to place a further obstacle in the way of actually giving away free cards. The serial number is unique. These cards should have been automatically sent to every owner - I asked why they didn't do that and was told that 'many people bought the phones for gifts'. Right. And who registers a gift in their name before giving it to someone?
Palm botched this 'fix' as bad as the phone-memory itself. It is an attempt to get positive press (by saying they 'addressed the issues' and actually do nothing. When I'm deciding between Palm and WinCE on my next device, the decision to leave Palm will now be much easier.
The page worked smoothly for me. Rather painless, really. I don't really need the 128 Mb card, since I already have a 1 Gb card, but my thinking is that the more people who respond and take advantage of PalmOne's offer, the more they will realize they screwed up.
Interesting note ... I upgraded from a 16 Mb Treo 300 to the Treo 650. My 300 had 5 Mb free memory when I upgraded. My 650 currently has less than 4 Mb free memory, with the same applications. This tells me that the inefficient memory management for contacts is really eating up a lot of my initially available 23 Mb. I didn't think it would be a problem to upgrade from the 300 because I would still have 7 Mb available beyond the capacity of the 300, but I was wrong. I have less space available now than I did before, and I'm forced to use my 1 Gb card extensively to make room for new apps.
I love the phone, the bluetooth headset, the speed of the processor, and the gorgeous screen, but the lack and inefficient use of memory needs to be fixed by PalmOne.
I love the 650, but am so seriously disgusted by this memory issue that I will consider dumping the 650 - and palmOne - for good if I can find the right PPC smartphone (since there are no other decent, current Palm smartphones). I'm sick of extricating the 650 from its reset loop when there isn't enough memory to load a program from the card thanks to the inefficient memory architecture.
palmOne, you need to do something about this NOW!!!!
Got my Treo and did the whole form. Very easy if you read. But its on back order... so no idea when I will ever receive the card.
I used the aforementioned site to order the 128MB card. It took me a total of 10 minutes, and the NEXT DAY (01/18/05), I received an email from PalmOne saying that the card had been shipped (free of charge & without shipping costs)!
I am an extreme gadget geek and absolutely love the Treo 650! I have it loaded with third party software and no major problems so far (already had a 256MB SD card from my former T3).
In my opinion, it is the ultimate gadget and I would be lost without it! It makes my personal life and work much easier!
Palm replyed the followings
The free 128 SD card is being offered to Treo 650 owners under the following network providers Cingular, Verizon and Sprint PCS. This program is being offered for the Treo 650 network locked phones, to resolve the memory problem issues. Be advice this program is only offered in the United States.
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