Future Treo Prototypes Roundup

During its recent Q3 conference call, palmOne's interim CEO, Ed Colligan mentioned that there were opportunities for additonal growth by "segment[ing] the potential [Treo] customer base" and that this would happen around new "software and form factors".

Combined with last year's comments made by then CEO Todd Bradley of a future "Treo family" as well as yesterday's news that palmOne was to open a European engineering centre for smartphone development to help accelerate the delivery of next-generation smartphones, it is safe to assume that a number of new Treo models of different shapes, sizes and flavour are in the pipeline.

However, aside from our imagination and some educated guesses we don't yet have an exact indication as to what these future Treo smartphones might look like nor when they might be released.

In the meantime we can nevertheless continue to dream about the possibilities and to help us along I came across yet another very interesting attempt at designing a future Treo below that was posted by jamespaulritter on the Treocentral forum which got me excited.

The design on the left above (we'll call it the "Treo 810") enhances the Treo with a 480x320 screen and an under-body back-sliding keyboard while maintaining the current overall dimensions of our Treo 650.  Although I have no idea what it might feel like to actually use it (since it doesn't yet exist), I have to admit that I really like the design of this 'slider' keyboard and while it still retains the antenna I consider it to be a much more elegant option than my own attempt at incorporating a sliding keyboard based on the Tungsten T3 (below right).

The design above right is nearly identical in concept to a "Treo 800" seen circulating online since last year which does away with the keyboard entirely in favour of just a large 480x320 screen.  Although again I consider this to be an interesting design and recognize that it may prove to have unique benefits for some people, I would not personally be interested in a keyboard-less Treo.

As I discussed a few weeks ago, our design for a future "Treo 710" (above left) sought to enhance the keyboard even further and is some 10% wider than our current Treo 650 (6.6cm instead of 5.9cm) resulting in a keyboard and navigation buttons that are also some 10% larger.

Meanwhile, our previous "Treo 700" above right borrows the Tungsten T3 style sliding keyboard, provides a large 480x320 screen and removes the antenna.

So, the combined imagination of a number of creative Treonauts now ofers us four potential 'realistic' future Treo form factors plus naturally the existing Treo 650 one.  But which one would we choose?  I for one was extremely (but pleasantly) surprised to see that nearly 50% of respondents to the "Treo 710" poll stated that they would buy one if it was available today (with that kind of response perhaps I should start designing phones for a living... ).

Given the choice and assuming that all of these future Treo models shared the same technical specifications which one would prove to be your ideal solution?  Personally I'm hesitating between the 710 because I wouldn't mind a slightly larger keyboard and the 810 because I have to admit that a larger screen would definitely appeal to me (now what about one that was wider and had a bigger screen... ).  In the meantime though let's be clear that I'm still over the moon with my 650 (as if anyone could have any doubts about that...).