Palm Treo 680 Press Release

For people who are ready to move up to a full-featured mobile phone that includes everything needed to stay organized, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 680 smartphone, a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone.(1) Customers will find the Treo 680 smartphone easy to use, slim and compact, yet packed full of features beyond its stellar phone capability, such as email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more.(2) In the coming weeks and months, carriers around the world will announce additional product details, availability and exact pricing. Palm believes this product will appeal to price-sensitive feature-phone owners who want a more capable mobile-computing device.

Palm’s U.S. retail and online stores will sell exclusively an unlocked GSM version in four new cool colors - crimson, copper, arctic and graphite. For a limited time, they will come complete with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its music service. With Yahoo! Music Unlimited, users have access to more than 1 million songs to take with them anywhere.

With the introduction of the Palm OS(R) based Treo 680 smartphone, Palm is targeting new users in the rapidly growing smartphone and feature-phone markets. Market research firm In-Stat, estimates that 25 percent of all wireless handsets worldwide will be smartphones by 2011. Research conducted by Palm suggests a substantial population of feature-phone users have not purchased smartphones, fearing they were too expensive and too difficult to use. The Treo 680 will offer an affordable, simple and fun way to get started and stay connected.

“The Treo 680 is the smartphone for everyone. It’s small, sleek, fast and comes in a variety of fun colors,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “It’s a great phone design, great for messaging and email, and provides users easy and fast access to the Internet and to their favorite music and pictures, and makes it easy for people to manage and balance their business and personal lives while on the go.”

During a press conference at DigitalLife in New York City, the audience saw Palm’s innovative hardware design and integrated, easy-to-use software. Known for ease of use, Palm differentiates the Treo 680 smartphone from others in the Treo family by offering the following features along with many additional enhancements:

New Design

The Treo 680 smartphone has an internal antenna and slim form factor, making the device smaller and sleeker than its Treo predecessors in the United States. It has a full, easy-type keyboard, perfect for writing SMS messages and emails, and an optimal 320×320 vibrant color screen for viewing web pages, photos, media and more.

All-in-one, Smarter Phone

The Treo 680 smartphone has a unique phone user interface that further simplifies Treo innovations, such as the ability to respond to calls with a preset text message and add new phone numbers to existing contact information, and three-way calling. The Treo 680 also has integrated email and web capabilities, so users can stay in touch with colleagues and friends. The messaging application on the Treo 680 displays text-messaging conversations as “threaded chats,” similar to IM, so users can see their entire conversation with a particular person. The Treo 680 smartphone also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder and video player.

Additional Features

The Treo 680 smartphone offers many additional features, including the following:

* Added memory: The Treo 680 smartphone includes 64MB of user-available storage, nearly three times the memory of the original Treo 650 smartphone. Customers can add up to 2GB of storage with expansion cards for those large music or video files (sold separately);
* Enhanced email and messaging: Exchange ActiveSync will now synchronize not only calendar and email, but contacts as well; SMS and MMS capabilities have been improved for a better user experience;
* Improved web browser: The Blazer 4.5 browser is superfast due to its smarter caching rules and includes alternate modes for viewing web pages optimized for the device or as a regular web page;
* Enhanced multimedia: Customers can use the Treo 680 smartphone to stream music, play MP3s and manage and share photo albums;
* Built-in dial-up networking (DUN) capabilities: Customers can use the new smartphone as a wireless modem via Bluetooth(R) wireless technology to connect to a compatible Bluetooth enabled laptop;
* Documents To Go: Customers can view, edit and share Microsoft Word and Excel documents on their Treo 680 smartphones in addition to viewing full-featured Adobe PDF files and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations; and
* Bluetooth 1.2: Customers can connect wirelessly to other Bluetooth enabled devices. The Treo 680 has improved car-kit and headset support, and support for multiple simultaneous Bluetooth connections.

(1) Designed to be compatible with networks implementing GSM/GPRS/EDGE standards, but may not be available or operate in all countries.

(2) Within wireless service coverage area only. Availability and coverage depends upon carrier and the geographic scope of international roaming agreements. Email, messaging and web access requires data services from a mobile service provider at an additional cost. Email account not included. EDGE service not available in all areas.

Palm Treo 680 Reviews

MyTreo.net has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “If I were not already a Treo user, the Treo 680 would be a great choice because you can’t get anything comparable for the price, and it offers loads of benefits over a regular phone. But if you are like me and already have a CDMA Treo 700p, there is no reason to switch to the Treo 680, especially since you will have to change carriers. While there are a couple of benefits such as slightly more internal memory and a smaller form factor, there are tradeoffs such as the lower-resolution camera and the hassle of changing phone plans.” Link.

PCMag has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes with very faint praise, “Alas, compared with the competition, the Treo 680 looks fat, old, and slow. … The Palm Treo 680 is the smartphone equivalent of a nice cup of chicken soup: well-known, basic, safe, nourishing. But there’s no “wow” factor here; it isn’t Southwestern chicken soup, nor was it made with free-range chickens. The masses will find it helps them get organized, but for early adopters, there’s just not enough spice here.” Link.

LaptopMag has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “Overall performance was good but not stellar. We noticed a bit of a delay moving from one application to another, and sometimes it took a few seconds for our keyboard clicks to register. Call quality was excellent, even with the internal antenna. On a long-distance call from Manhattan to Boston, the other caller said we sounded clear. We didn’t notice any static or hissing on our end of the line during other calls. … There are now several sub-$200 smart phones on the market, but the Treo 680 does the best job of making it simple to juggle voice calls, messaging, the Web, and PIM functions. For Cingular customers, the HSDPA-enabled Samsung BlackJack is the best bet for style-conscious multimedia mavens. But the Treo 680 has broader appeal because of how intuitive Palm makes the user experience.” Link.

CNET has a review of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “The Treo 680 was fairly responsive, though there were some slight delays when opening Office documents and activating the camera. The smart phone doesn’t break any speed barriers in terms of Web browsing, but it’s acceptable, especially with the improved caching feature. Music playback through the phone’s speakers wasn’t great, but plugging in the included earbuds improved the situation. … With a user-friendly interface, decent performance, and an affordable price point, the Palm Treo 680 is a good smart phone for the first-time buyer or for mobile users looking to be more productive on the road; we just wish it had a better camera and Wi-Fi support.” Link.

MobileTechReview has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “A strong entry-level Treo that will likely attract news users, especially at such a reasonable price point. Fairly similar to the existing Treo 650 and Treo 700p but with better looks, the Treo 680 possesses the same ease of use, stable OS and full set of PIM application with powerful Office tools. Though Treo 650 owners might not run to upgrade (unless their 650 is on its last legs), it’s not a bad start for business and power users. The abundant instructions, tips, help files and walkthroughs on the phone’s features will help novice users. But for Treo 650 users who are looking for a Palm OS GSM upgrade and 3G, sorry—there’s nothing in sight yet.” Link.

PalmInfoCenter has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “Treo 680 brings a much needed slimmer look and feel to the Treo line at a very nice price point. While still not the flashiest or thinnest smartphone out there, the Treo 680 still demonstrates why the Treo leads with its ease of use, large software library and powerful functionality. To trim the size a significant battery life compromise had to be made which may be a deal breaker for some. However the lighter load on your wallet and pocket make up for keeping a spare battery close at hand. Technical nitpicking aside, the Treo 680 is a very powerful smartphone that is a very capable and easy to use.” Link.

ITReviews has a review up of the Palm Treo 680, and concludes, “the last Treo to run on the Palm Operating System, the Treo 650, appeared towards the middle of 2005 and considering the long time gap between then and now some of the Treo 680’s specifications are a real let-down. … The Treo 680 feels like a case of too little too late. It does have some strong features on both the hardware and software sides, but it does not represent a huge advance on the old Treo 650, and that is a disappointment.” Link.

PDAStreet reviews the Palm Treo 680 and writes, “The battery for the 680 is only rated for 4 hours of talk time, versus 6 hours for the 650 and 4.5 hours for the 700. We definitely noticed that it drained quickly in our testing, needing recharging at least every-other day, and sometimes every day. You’ll need to pack the charger for even short trips. … The 680 is an attractive addition to the Treo line, but we wish a little more innovation and value had been packed into it. While other smartphone makers are driving the category, Palm is resting with small refinements. If the Treo can’t keep up with its competitors, it’s going to fall behind.” Link.

Brighthand has a review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “Palm played its hand just right with the 680. I do think that they might have tried very hard to get 3G on it (evidenced by the clearly faster than EDGE ever seemed Blazer). The idea to more tightly integrate the Contacts and Phone applications was also a functional and slick idea from a usability standpoint. The Exchange integration with VersaMail is fine once you get it all synced up the first time all the way through, but is more than passable for what is needed on the go. And the additional software is hit and miss depending on what you need (and what is current - Documents to Go 9 and Bejeweled 2 would have been better since they have both been out for a while). My only real sores come with Cingular’s side of things. Despite the really nice initial price of $175 with a two-year contract, you will be looking at a bill that starts at $80 per month before taxes. That is way too high for the market that Palm is going after, and I think that will be the one thing that keeps the 680 from being a runaway success.” Link.

Pocket-lint has a review of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “the form factor is over large, the qwerty keyboard awkward to use and the camera lacking the now defacto megapixel count. If you can muster up the extra cash and must have a Treo then the 750v the one for you. However the smartphone world moves so fast that there is now such a choice, that Treo, especially with this model is fast falling behind the times.” Link.

TreoCentral has a first impressions review up of the Palm Treo 680 and concludes, “I could go on and on about the Treo 680 and about many other differences between it and the Treo 650. But I just wanted to mention the first things that I noticed upon opening the box and setting up the Treo 680. The device is really beautiful. I love its shape and size and color. The screen is gorgeous and the sound on it is great. I can overlook the camera placement and get used to that, and I can get a replacement stylus. But right now the battery issue is really a problem for me. I truly hope that there is a fix on the way.” Link.

PCWorld has a review of the Palm Treo 680 and writes, “As a phone, the 680 is reasonably comfortable to use, with adequate voice quality and volume. The integration with Palm contacts remains a strong feature; and the five-way navigation button lets you easily initiate calls with one hand, whether you’re working from an address book entry or from call logs. … Overall, the 680 makes for a decent entry-level Treo that improves on the 650. People who’ve resisted trading in an older phone and a Palm for a single device should check it out.” Link.

Vnunet has a review of the Palm Treo 680 and writes, “In terms of accessibility, the Treo 680 seems much simpler to use, though the hardware isn’t as spiffy. It’s not a 3G phone, for a start, which will mean a slower internet browsing experience. … Battery life is disappointing – it’ll need to be topped up every evening, and Bluetooth saps it faster. … It may lack 3G and a decent camera, but the Treo 680 fits the hand perfectly and is a cinch to use.” Link.

TechWorld has a review of the Palm Treo 680 and writes, “The 680 is the best Treo yet, combining business functions with connectivity and a leaner footprint. It’s simple to use, the feature set is extensive and text is easily legible on the big screen. The only concern is whether you’d want to use the Treo as a phone – an issue that doesn’t arise with some of the sleeker Windows Mobile-based smartphones.” Link.