Mobile World Congress 2008: Palm
February 14, 2008 [General] | By Edward J. R.
What's up with Palm?
Since Palm is a U.S. based company with ultra-strong presence in USA, at Mobile World Congress 2008 they were focused mainly on Europe (despite the fact that this Europe-based event is extremely global with many visitors from Asia and Americas too).
To get impression what is going on with Palm in Europe just take a look at this short video interview:
Genarally we were chatting, among others, with the employees of Palm from Palm UK:
... and from Palm Germany (see video above):
... and from Palm Spain (note his swanky glasses! we wish Palm smartphones were also that swanky!):
Some highlights from the chats with Palm staff:
most smartphones sold by Palm in Europe are powered by Windows Mobile, so clearly decision to go for Windows Mobile was very good for Palm
we didn't receive clear answer whether existing Windows Mobile smartphones from Palm will be upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.1 or not
majority of units sold seem to be low-end smartphones for mass market
in Europe recent offering of Palm consists of: the Treo 750 (with touch-screen) and Treo 500 (without touch-screen) smartphones (both powered by Windows Mobile and available also with 750v and 500v where "v" stands for "Vodafone version") but soon (within 2 weeks) also Palm OS based Centro is coming to Europe
when it comes to questions "when WiFi in Palm smartpohones?" and "what about the unannounced Palm Treo smartphone that was sighted at a keynote of Bill Gates at CES 2008?" we haven't got any answers but obviously it is policy of almost all companies not to comment on unreleased products
Since no new Palm smartphone was announced at Mobile World Congress 2008 we reckon that it could be either CeBIT next month or CTIA in April where we can expect them.
While Palm didn't have their own stand, their phones were present at Microsoft's stand and at Microsoft's device bar in their centre in Hotel Catalonia. Palm however had their own pavilion for meetings with visitors from industry (mainly wireless cariers) and press: