Treo 650 Achieves "Best in Class" Status

It’s not telling me anything that I didn’t already know but it’s nonetheless always nice to hear other people confirm that our Treo tops the smartphone league…

Yesterday, Strategy Analytics, a global research and consulting company, released a report entitled "Blackberry Learning Curve Too Steep for Consumers as PalmOne Treo Sets New Usability Standard," its latest converged device benchmark report, which concludes that the Palm Treo 650 is the highest rated converged device in the USA, narrowly edging the Samsung i730 into second place and also beating the UTStarcom PPC6600 and Blackberry 7100. These results come from hands-on consumer testing by the Strategy Analytics Advanced Wireless User Panel.

The Palm Treo 650 achieved "Best in Class" status based upon superior menu systems and UI (78/100), display (86/100), style and design (81/100).  Style/Design proves to be a key differentiator for the Treo 650 against the Samsung SCH-i730 which despite scoring highly for applications was too large and too heavy to win over users and the UTStarcom PPC6600 which also faired well for applications but was lacking in style and design as well as being considered too large and heavy for consumers.  Participants struggled with the Blackberry 7100's out-of-the-box learning curve of the intuitive messaging software which was found to be too steep for first time Blackberry users.

In terms of software applications, the i730 outscored the PalmOne Treo 650 by 3 points. "The Samsung i730 wins praise for its features and Windows access, but loses out to the Treo 650 in the Style/Design category," according to David Kerr, Vice-President of the Strategy Analytics Global Wireless Practice.

Kevin Nolan, Director of the Advanced Wireless Laboratory at Strategy Analytics, added, "Clearly the Treo's distinct advantage is in its small form factor, even for converged device buyers."

This report should provide plenty of ammunition to prospective Treonauts who might still have been deciding whether the Treo 650 was the right choice for the them.  The answer as always is clearly a resounding “Yes!”   Considering that prices for your very own Treo 650 smartphone now start at only $99.99 with EarthLink Wireless it’s difficult to think about what might be holding one back from joining the revolution…

Treonauts like to be on top of the world…