After a long trail of “gandolfini” rumors and posts, the PIC now received confirmation that a new smartphone called Centro is due in fall. It is EVDO-based, will run on Sprint, is Palm OS powered and HAS a touchscreen and a keyboard. It is said to be targeted at people new to the smartphone space”…ok, so we have the Gandolfini confirmed(and it ISNT a Treo:-))…
Interestingly, Paul Loeffler also stated that:
…there is a “bigger story” behind the Centro which will be revealed closer to the product release date…
If you ask me, the Centro is the device that Jeff Hawkins hinted at in CNET’s Foleo interview(page 2):
tradeoffs. Well, if I have something with a bigger screen and a keyboard–whether it looks like this (Foleo) or something else–where I can view and manipulate data, does it change how I design this guy (pointing to Treo)? Yes.
So, maybe a Treo without a keyboard?
That’s an example. I’m not saying we are doing that. But it’s much deeper than that and I don’t want to say what those deeper things are. It’s not just about e-mail. All you have to remember is you’ve got this thing in your pocket (smart phone) which has got a high-speed Internet connection and huge amounts of memory, just imagine huge, assume almost unlimited at some point in time. Now, what do I do with that data? I can assume this thing is relating to other objects in the world. I have to just leave you with that as a teaser. It frees up some of the constraints you’re living with when you’re trying to design one of these guys (Treo).
Essentially, I expect that the Centro will NOT be a member of the Treo line, but rather, a device with a “dual purpose”. Firstly, it is aimed at teenies and soccer moms who want a phone that’s a bit smarter than their average Nokia S60 phone, but not as heavy and big as a Treo.
Secondarily, however, it will be aimed at Foleo owners and will provide their Foleo with always-on internet access, acting as the “center” of their “digital world. The focus wont be on high performance or stand-alone capability(like with a Treo) – here, the focus will be to act as a “smart USB stick” for the Foleo… This explains the smaller keyboard and keys – if you want to enter large amounts of data or look at images, you just open up the Foleo and use its rather big screen. For entering a short SMS, however, the Centro’s tiny QWERTY keyboard is more than big enough…millions of teens manage T9/Multitap keyboards every day.
An existing Treo owner without a Foleo probably won’t want to upgrade…but as already said before, we aren’t the devices intended audience…
What do you expect?
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Don’t tease us with:
“So, maybe a Treo without a keyboard?
That’s an example. I’m not saying we are
doing that.”
That is what I would have wanted…. A Treo that is all screen, TX sized, maybe with a decent sized, slide-out, qwerty keyboard. I’ve seen LG release a phone like that, you’d have to think that Palm could too even if it is two years later. I hope that this is a sign of alternate designs for Palm smartphones (just no MacroShaft Widedows imMobile)
Hi,
to be honest, I rather think that they will reduce the overall size of the Treo more and more to make a “phone cube” that basically is useless without a Foleo…
Best regards
Tam Hanna