Treo 650 Unlocked Price Drop
Every time a hardware manufacturer reduces the price of its products there is a sense that it may be in order to clear stock for a next generation device.
In this particular case, Palm has reduced the price of its Unlocked Treo 650 GSM by $50 to $649.00 and the buzz is rapidly building that this can only mean that the announcement of a new, fifth generation, Treo is just around the corner.
More specifically everyone is betting that like last year Palm will use the forthcoming CTIA show in San Francisco in less than two weeks time (where I will naturally be) as the platform from which to officially announce its new Treo to the world. Actually, I should perhaps say “new Treo(s)” because the real expectation is that for the first time ever Palm will offer not one but two Treo smartphones with the first running PalmOS and the second running Windows Mobile.
Although there have been some pictures and video of the Windows Mobile Treo “670” circulating along with a few specifications there has been absolutely no indication about what the PalmOS version might look like. So far everyone has assumed that both devices will be identical in form and overall specifications but without any hard evidence this is currently just educated guessing.
Additionally, we should be clear that Palm is likely only to ‘announce’ any new device(s) and not their actual commercial release. As before, any new products are unlikely to make it to market before December (ideally for the Xmas holidays) or January. If the past is any indication the first carrier will again be Sprint followed by Cingular, Verizon and Earthlink as well as the Unlocked GSM version.
Unfortunately, missing from the above wireless carrier lineup is T-Mobile which never released its own Treo 650 – leaving their Treonaut subscribers no other choice but to buy the unlocked model – and it is anybody’s guess if the company ever plans to carry the Treo again (we never knew why they didn’t have the 650 in the first place).
Evidently the coming two weeks promise to be extremely interesting as rumours of our new Treo gain momentum and the date of CTIA’s show approaches. In a short 10 days I hope that I will have the opportunity to actually hold one (or two) of these new Treo smartphones in my hand and to share with you the first real pictures and maybe even review – I can’t wait!
Treonauts are an impatient lot… 
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Cuando se trata de Palm, las noticias llegan en grupo. Durante los últimos días se ha dejado ver el futuro Treo 700w con Windows Mobile, el Treo 650 ha llegado a Vodafone y se han filtrado pistas sobre dos nuevos PDA: el Z22 y el T|X. Y por si fuera poco, en... [Read More]
Tracked on Sep 23, 2005 1:34:26 PM
Comments
Something else to give credence to your thoughts... there were comments posted at PalmAddicts earlier this week to the effect that the Treo600 has also been stopped being sold. Supposedly, trying to buy one from the US Palm site took you to the 650 page(s), but other sites like the UK site were still working. Nonetheless, a price drop on the 650 together with the 600 apparently being pulled (at least from the US market), definitely act as a sign of an upcoming device. And considering that the US always gets new Palm toys first, its not surprising that the 600 pages were yanked from the US site, but not the UK and other sites.
DANGIT! I was just about to buy a treo 650 this weekend but now i dont wanna be behind the curb. Plus the fact that the new treo might fix alot of the problems with the treo 650 makes me want to really wait, i might just get it for a late christmas gift or something!
DANGIT! I was just about to buy a treo 650 this weekend but now i dont wanna be behind the curb. Plus the fact that the new treo might fix alot of the problems with the treo 650 makes me want to really wait, i might just get it for a late christmas gift or something!
Matt - that's the big dilemma for all those waiting for the 'next' best thing. If you plan to be on Sprint then you 'may' only have to wait 3 to 4 months for the next Treo and if it's another carrier the 4 to 8 months. It all depends how long you're willing to wait to become a Treonaut... ;-)
Cheers, A.
BTW: There really aren't 'a lot' of problems with the Treo 650 at all.
All the problems with the 650? Say what? What problems??? :)
Here's a thought for you if you don't want to wait... first off, you probably also don't want to be the first person to get the device. Sure, new toys are nice, but realistically its better for a device to be on the market for a few weeks or months, read some reviews, make sure it does what you need/want, and then finally buy one. That said, and assuming you aren't with Sprint, let's say the new Palm-based Treo is available in February (last year Sprint got a 3 month exclusive from Nov to Feb). Now the GSM models act differently than the CDMA models, so by the time one is available you'll already know about any NVFS bugs, etc, but you may not know about GSM/GPRS related issues. So let's say its out in February, but you wait til March to buy one. Well guess what? That's seven months from now. Wait another 2 months for a total of 9 from now and its time for "carrier manipulation time". :)
You see when you get your new 650 right now, you'll pay around $300 for it with a 2 year contract or around $350 for a 1 year contract. But if you save that precious $50 and get the 2 year contract, you are effectively screwed from "comp'd upgrades" for 1 year and 9 months. All carriers (in the US anyway) are allowed to give special pricing 9 months into a 1 year contract to get you to renew again. And almost all carriers base upgrade options on the value of the device you bought previously. So if you bought the $50 cheapy phone, than a year later they'll help you upgrade to a new equivalent phone. But when you get the $500 phone (granted for around $300), they'll help you upgrade to an equivalent expensive phone.
So you get yourself a new Treo 650 with a one year contract and pay slightly more for it. Then, in nine months there's probably a new Treo out and you have read enough about it to know you want it. So you go to your local carrier 9 months into your 1 year contract and tell them you want to upgrade to the new device. When they say no, you say "that's fine... my number can be ported to any carrier, so I'll just get one with new service discounts at such-and-such carrier". They won't want to lose business, so they'll give you a nice upgrade option. It won't be free... more likely you'll go about $150 to $200 out of pocket plus tax on the non-discounted amount, but it'll be a lot cheaper than dropping another $600 for the new Treo.
The above has worked for me for years with Verizon & AT&T Wireless (Cingular). It is, in fact, the only reason I don't have an unlocked device... there's no carrier upgrade options for unlocked phones.
Tmobile pulled the Treo 600 off its website. I heard from 1 Tmobile store that they would soon carry the treo 650, but so far nada. Another Tmobile store siad they dont know about any Treo 650. I tried calling Tmobile sales & they didnt know anything about a Treo 650. In fact, they could still sell me a treo 600 even though the web doesnt show it anymore. Ck out the new Windows based Treo at http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1863503,00.asp .Ill stick w/ palm for now. it is faster & available now!
Also, I suspect most of u heard that Palm OS company has been sold to a forign company.
What about the sim cards for these Treos 650 and 700 ? Which unit overall is the best to use ? I currently using a Sony P10i and a Imate pocket PC PDA2K but also have owned 2 Treo 600s. Could you please help me make this decision. Thank you.
BUYING A TREO 650 CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR POCKETBOOK. HAVE A UNIT 6 WEEKS OLD FROM SPRINT. MIKE AND SPEAKERS WENT INACTIVE.
CANNOT USE. SPRINT SAYS TOO BAD YOU DID NOT PURCHASE OUR INSURANCE. GO SEE PALM.
PALM SAYS SPRINT SHOULD NOT DO THAT. IN THE MEAN TIME CANNOT USE PHONE AND NO ONE WILL FIX IT WITHOUT PAYMENT OF MONEY.
PALM DOES NOT LIVE UP TO THEIR WARRANTY AND SPRINT JUST WANT MONEY PERIOD.
hello, my name is Fernando, i live in united kingdon, i need help, i bought in united states the new palm treo 700W for verizon wirrless network and i need now if i acan use in europe for other company,
ok thanks,
regards
hi there...
i was wondering..i unlockd my treo 650 from rogers in canada but dont hve a sim card to try to see if its actually lockd..are there other software evidence that shows my phone is unlocked..? i m specifically referring to the window that opens to phone info...any help will be appreciated.
thanx
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