Cingular Treo 680: Pricing & Release Date Leaks + Treo 750w Possibly Coming to Cingular Soon
I have to admit that at this particular moment I feel as if Santa had arrived early this year thanks to the latest leak of a Cingular “Government Sales Team” PowerPoint presentation for the “Palm Treo 680 Pre-Launch Briefing” which has a ton of information about the forthcoming Treo 680 – now expected to be released on or within days of November 5th…
(Slide 6) Palm Treo 680 Value Proposition
- Cingular-exclusive device
- PDA capability at a Smartphone price: debuts at $174.99 best price (tentative)
- Palm Ease of Use: Palm OS is still recognized as the easiest device OS to use. Palm further enhances the simplicity of Palm OS with the enhanced user interface on Treo 680 which gives quick access to all phone features and major applications (Calendar/Web/Email, etc.).
- Business/Personal email applications: Customers can choose from a variety of email and messaging options to access their corporate and personal email, including Good Mobile Messaging, XpressMail, Blackberry Connect (expected Q1, 2007) and Microsoft Direct Push (expected Q1, 2007)
- LOB applications platform: Support for TeleNav and a broad portfolio of horizontal and vertical applications
- Push to Talk Capability: PTT software upgrade expected in Q1, 2007
- Rich multimedia experience: With MEdia Net, personal email, chat-style SMS/MMS, pending IM capabilities (Thumbspeed), and an integrated multimedia suite with PocketTunes to play music, stereo headset jack, and VGA camera with video capture/playback
From the above information it therefore looks like Cingular may not after all offer the rumoured FREE Treo 680 with a new 2 year voice and data plan but the best price of $174.99 can nonetheless still be considered a bargain for the features and functionality that this smartphone delivers – it also happens to be the single best value Treo ever released.
Additionally the expected availability of Blackberry Connect and Microsoft Direct Push by early 2007 combined with the terrific pricing should also greatly help to push the Treo 680 deeper into businesses which have thus far limited deployments to more senior personnel because of costs.
(Slide 7) Cingular’s Palm Portfolio – Device Comparion (Please click on thumbnail for full size image)
Although the rest of the PowerPoint presentation makes absolutely no mention of a Palm Treo 750w, the above image nonetheless presents it as one that will become part of Cingular’s Palm portfolio at some point in the future… (Also see my previous post Treo 750w Coming To Sprint... Maybe...)
(Slide 8) Palm Treo 680 – Competitive Comparison
Treo 700 Advantages
– 3G speeds
– Higher-resolution cameras
– Slight advantage in talk timeTreo 680 Advantages
– Price -- $50 to $100 cheaper
– Lighter, Slimmer, Antenna-Less Form-Factor (added by me)
– International GSM Roaming
– Enhanced phone UI
– Slight advantage in user-available memory
– PTT Capability (Q1, 2007)
– BBC and MSFP (Q1, 2007)
– Non-camera version (Business Customers Only)
In much the same vein as my own Treo Family Comparison Chart (which I have now again updated with all this latest information) the above image helps to more clearly visualize the main differences between the Treo 680 and other Treo smartphones currently available. As previously noted one of the advantages is also that pretty much all Treo accessories will work for all smartphone models.
(Slide 10) Palm Treo 680 – Pricing & Eligible Data Plans
Palm Holiday Rebate
– Palm will fund an additional $50 off the Treo 680 during Holiday promotional period (11/5/06 – 1/6/07)
– Palm rebate will add to Cingular $50 rebate to create a single $100 rebate
– $100 rebate will require activation of an unlimited data plan and a $39.99 or higher voice planPricing (tentative)
$424.99, no commitment
$349.99, 1 yr. commitment
$249.99, 1 yr. with UNL data plan ($100 rebate)
$274.99, 2 year commitment
BEST price: $174.99 2 year with UNL data plan ($100 rebate)Data Plans
PDA Connect Plans
PDA Connect for Good Plans
Blackberry Connect Plans – BBC available Q1, 2007
Microsoft Direct Push -- client available Q1, 2007
Tethering Plans (Dial-Up Networking): Tethers via Bluetooth at launch; will add USB tethering in mid-life upgrade
Treo 680 & Cingular 8525 info [via Life’s last 60 days]
UPDATE: Thanks to Christopher for pointing me in the direction of the picture below left already showing a Treo 680 demo unit at a Fry’s in Houston. Also one of the very first images of a Cingular-branded Windows Mobile Treo 750w which I estimate may be released as early as the end of November…
Treonauts are always looking for the leaks… 
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Tracked on Oct 30, 2006 6:58:20 PM
Comments
i think it is safe to say that the palm store unlocked price will be $425 or $500. I don't see Palm competing with a carrier on the price of an unlocked phone.
is it just me, or is palm being incredibly shortsighted (stupid) by not releasing a cingular/gsm 750p? i mean, honestly, palm, this isn't brain surgery!
guys like me, who have a 650, want to UPGRADE: we want a 750, we want GSM, and we want the PALM OS (not windoze). i personally know 5 people who are waiting for this configuration! and every blog has users asking for it. palm is losing money, hand-over-foot! why is this so difficult for them to understand?
Ryan in #15
Inspired by your experience, I visited my Cingular store to see if they had a waiting or notification list - the girl that waited on me told me that all she knew was that they'd be in before Christmas. What a lot of help that was... NOT!
Where did you find such a helpful sales rep? *sigh* I may try calling a larger store to see if they are anymore helpful. Or I may bite the bullet and buy it online and wait for the shipping.
What was this talk the lead designer was saying about how the Treo 680 was going to be the phone to capture people who normally wouldn't purchase a smartphone? He emphasized how he wanted to keep the price down over and over. $400? $500? Or, you can sign up with Cingular with a minimum $80/month plan to get the phone for $175? WTF.
Actually, the 680 will be offered in graphite, arctic (white), Copper, and crimson.
Artic, Copper and Crimson colors are exclusive to Palm only. Check out the small print on Palm's website. The question at hand is what is that black Treo running Palm OS that we saw in an earlier article? Could it be the 750p that so many of us would like to see?
I notice in the comparison chart that the 680 has a better screen resolution than the 750, and some other nice features.
I was waiting-desparately-for the new Cingular 750. I have an older Cingular Edge card for my laptop that's painfully slow and $60/month. I've read that the 700's and the new 750 work on this EVDO network that will let me use the Treo as a modem and ditch the slow Edge card.
I can't tell whether the 680 will do that, or should I wait for the 750?
Insights will be appreciated. I had to switch to Cingular and held off taking a good phone to preserve my discounts/rebate. I'm on a $30 Go phone temporarily until the right Treo comes along.
ken (#32),
i read, months ago, that only the *windows mobile* treos have the reduced screen resolution (240x240), due to limitations of the windows mobile software itself(IIRC).
all treos running the palm OS have a resolution of 320x320.
At the risk of sounding like a broken recording:
any updates, hard fact, rumors, innuendo, or down right lies about the 750p??? I'm dyin for some info here:)
#34 Erboy-----What do you want to hear? I'll tell you what I want to happen...you see next week the Treo 680 will be released and then on or about Nov 14th when the Treo 750w is released by Cingular, they will release the Treo 750p that same day. To all of our surprise, they will be available in any color that you want and will have wi-fi!
#35 Michelle - That's EXACTLY what I want to hear, but I'm not holding my breath that it is going to happen.
#36 Joe-I'm not holding my breath either, but it is nice to dream!
I'm a T600 user (yes, you read that right) and I can't wait for the 750P to come out!!! My Cingular contract is done in Feb ... suggestions?
People, people, there won't be a 750p for some time. The 700s are high speed data phones, and the palm OS can't do 3G simultaneous voice/data.
We're going to have to wait for Access to get off their butts with whatever successor to the palm os they are producing, unless palm has something they're not telling us.
So, choice is 680, palm0S, edge fastest speed, and 750w, windows mobile, full 3G speeds.
yeah, wish it was different.
Now that I'm completely depressed about no forthcoming GSM 750p, I'm back to looking at the 680.
I'm confused... does the 680 have 128mb of storage or 64? on Palms site is lists 64 on this blog site it list 128.
does anyone know?
ty
The Treo680 has 128MB of storage, but half of that is reserved for the operating system, leaving 64MB available for the user. Make sense?
Will the 680 also be available at from the verizon service? Or will it just be available by Cingular and T- Mobile?
The Treo680 is a GSM phone. It will only work on GSM networks (Cingular and T-Mobile). The Treo700p will work on CDMA networks (Verizon and Sprint).
Just to share my dissapointment with you people; I visited and asked one of my Cingular guys today he checked and told me that they do not have any 680 listed in their shipment for this week.So basically they are not receiving any 680 for the first week of Nov.
I remember good old days,dreaming for the last week of October.
Extremely dissapointed......
You did notice that this was a leak from the Government division not the Business or Personal division. Anyone with a Cingular government contract care to call your Cingular Rep. and ask if you can get the 680 now? Perhaps, ask about the 750 while you are at it.
I'd imagine once it's out for Gov't it'll filter down to us poor old slobs next.
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