“Could the Palm Centro spell salvation for the struggling smartphone innovator that has fallen on tough times? Or is it a doomed effort to hang on in an increasingly competitive market? Palm designed the Centro to attract buyers who are younger and less affluent than its traditional Treo customers, and the new phone will probably succeed in buying Palm some time. But it may not be enough to reverse the company’s flagging fortunes,” Stephen H. Wildstrom reports for BusinessWeek.
“The Centro is essentially a shrunken version of the Treo 755p, with a scrunched keyboard, a slightly smaller screen, and a battery yielding about 13% less talk time. Among these compromises, the only one that worries me is the keyboard, which seems to be designed for hobbits,” Wildstrom reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Tiny mechanical keyboards, how quaint! Using an iPhone next to a Treo in an airport the other day was like flying a spaceship over a lame horse pulling a buggy with a broken wheel.
Wildstrom continues, “There is a big downside, one the Centro shares with its Treo siblings. The Palm OS software, which was revolutionary in its day, has been upgraded over the years with the tech equivalent of rubber bands and chewing gum. The program, which actually predates smartphones, has now gone five years without a major overhaul. Simply put, it is no longer up to the job.”
“The Web browser is barely usable, and every online Palm forum is filled with complaints from owners whose Treos crash or lock up frequently,” Wildstrom reports. “…For all its faults, Palm still offers the simplest and most intuitive user interface and the best integration between PDA and phone functions of any smartphone. That includes Apple’s iPhone, which has a great Web browser but lacks a simple way to look up contacts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Grabs iPhone. Presses “phone,” then “contacts,” scrolls to contact or clicks letter from side alphabet menu to jump directly to contacts whose last name begins with said letter. That seems quite logical, simple, and intuitive to us. Certainly easy enough to not start pining for some old dino mobile OS/company.
Wildstrom continues, “I’ve carried a Palm of one sort or another since the original Pilot in 1996, and I would be greatly saddened by the death of this icon. But the Centro may not be enough of an advance to prevent that.”
Full article here.
Stephen, you’ve carried a Palm for too long. Since June 29th 2007, in fact. Don’t be sad about Palm’s death; that’s what happens when companies sit around, rest on their decaying laurels, and do basically nothing for years. Now, remember to click “contacts” and use the iPhone’s side alphabet menu and we’re sure you’ll forget all about Palm as quickly as we have.
Pity Palm, they are unable to write original software as they seem to be still using the Newtons software! albeit stitched with ugly extra coding that is most likely M$ compatible, is it any wonder it operates the way it does!!!
No, a Palm for Dicks….
(but Dirty Harry makes sense)
Well, I’m with the group that LMAO with Dextro. But really, I have to say I’m locked into a couple of very fast, very easy Palm apps that have been a boon to my work/life. I’ve tried the iPhone equivalent and it’s just not ready for prime time.
Aren’t any of you in the medical field? We’ve all used these Palms for AGES and they are a way of life. They are the kind of devices with an OS with ease of use that should be the bait that gets people into Apple. Once upon a time, Palm and Apple had a nice synergy going. I just don’t get, MDN, what the Palm-hating does for Mac users. They are different niches and for now, different devices.
Yeah, lots of folks equate Palm with the Treo, but that is a mistake since the Treos are really lousy phones. On the plain, old simple PDA, you can read books, do the math you need to do for work, look up drugs, etc. etc. Pop in and out different SD cards. Quit being such haters. Live and let live; and think of what Apple and Palm could do together…
I had a Palm Pilot. It was nice for a couple of weeks, and then it crashed.
I lost all of my data, as well as my desire to do anything further with the Palm Pilot.
It’s been sitting somewhere on a dusty shelf, ever since.
If I would have actually purchased it, I would have returned it for a refund. As the case is though, I won it, so that wasn’t an option. I considered eBaying it, but never got around to it.
I owned the the treo 650 for three years, I never replaced it, Why? Palm never upgraded their sh*t. They come up with new models but they are very greedy with the features. same camera pixels, same crappy video (audio is garbled) same laggy browser that constatly crashes) Same laggy jerky music player. Crashes every single day. I almost stabbed the screen once with it’s stylus. DONT BUY A TREO.
I now owned an Iphone, Its the best phone I have ever used. Although it lacks a little feature, with it’s aggressive firmware update that will change. Next year is even better Steve Jobs opened up the iphone to third pary developers (SDK), that means by next year you will see hundreds of programs, think word, excel support maybe even adobe photoshop mini hahah. So long treo crap.
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