Hot on the tail (tales?) of Apple’s [AAPL] latest news of iPhone connectivity problems and App Store concerns, the Palm [PALM] Treo Pro was announced yesterday, followed today by the RIM [RIMM] BlackBerry Bold.
Huh?
The Apple iPhone 3G
The iPhone 3G has been out the longest, and it has been steadily gaining developer acceptance and consumer interest, despite the reported issues associated with its AT&T [T] 3G data and voice connectivity and reception.
While there are some outspoken critics of the signal problems, it appears that the majority of iPhone 3G users are pleased overall with the product (including this person), given the limitations of the competing smartphones available at the time of its rollout. The fact that Apple [AAPL] is consciously trying to transform the iPhone 3G into a corporate-worthy type of smartphone rather than merely a cool status symbol among the general consumeristas is significant: it is attempting to provide Exchange integration and other similar “office” capable features, either via the base software stack or via third party developers.
What’s more telling is that there are still supply shortages of the iPhone 3G at the various outlets around the U.S. It is expected that the Best Buy [BBY] distribution deal will help to improve the availability of the product somewhat. And this is despite the increased cost of owning the iPhone 3G, in the form of the AT&T service plans required.
But now it’s been a bit more than a month since the iPhone 3G launch, and there’s new competing products getting announced…
The Palm Treo Pro
The first thing that jumps out at me about the Treo Pro (formerly identified by many bloggers and analysts as the 850W) is not any technical aspects of it, but rather that it is stated by Palm to be sold as an unlocked multi-band GSM phone, rather than tied to any carrier. This means that a CDMA-based carrier like Sprint or Verizon would not be supporting this phone on their networks. On the other hand, since Sprint already has the Treo 800W, this may not be as big of a concern to many people. But the price of the unlocked, unsubsidized phone at $549 retail may be too much for the average consumer, or even a techie, to want to endure. Assuming that the potential owner of a Treo Pro has a compatible carrier and is paying into a fairly low service data-and-voice plan (like any of the $30-60/month plans), getting an unsubsidized phone and plugging it into such a plan may be a decent option financially.
Now, comparing the Treo Pro to the earlier-released Treo 800W reveals a lot of shared features. However, the Treo Pro is physically thinner and lighter but a tad bit wider and longer. It also seems to have a bit more sophisticated Wi-Fi capability. But both devices are still Windows Mobile devices, running the 6.1 version, which some people are less-than-thrilled about. And while the Palm press folks have mentioned that the Treo Pro is aimed at the mobile professional who needs a certain sophistication and lack of hassle while on the move, there’s another vendor that has already proven that claim for a few years…
The RIM BlackBerry Bold
The vendor in question is, of course, Research in Motion [RIMM], with their BlackBerry line. With a heritage that began with an enhanced pager and then later with a smart communicator, the modern line of smartphones continues to be the darling of corporate travelers. Which is great, but what about the appeal to the mass consumer crowd?
While RIM has long touted the BlackBerry for the sophisticated (read: “rich”) business road warriors, it has attempted to do an about-face by catering to the medium-to-high end consumeristas who are already being targeted by Apple. It already launched a series of TV commercials showing all of the nice things you can do with the phone in a moving diorama of “stuff”, like take photos and videos and send some E-mails and even browse the Web. So far, so good, right?
So the BlackBerry Bold 9000 is the latest model from RIM, to stem the tide of interest in the iPhone 3G and its ever-expanding portfolio of applications and services. Unlike some of the other BlackBerry devices, the Bold is positioned as the top end model, supplanting the BlackBerry Curve 83×0 series. While marginally larger than other current BlackBerry devices in at least one dimension, it gains video recording (similar to what’s seen in the BlackBerry Pearl models) and revamped rounded edges. But, like all other BlackBerry devices, it suffers from the its dependency on the RIM server network: the severe BlackBerry outages and hacker attacks on the devices are well-known and have been effective in deterring new users.
And the Winner Is…
… dependent on what is important to you.
If you are looking for the tasty-freshness of the iPhone 3G, then there ya go. If you are already a BlackBerry fan and very comfortable with the BlackBerry feature set, then there ya go. The BlackBerry Bold is most likely not going to win over people who have been considering the iPhone 3G for its capabilities, but it may pick up people who cannot wait for iPhone availability in their area.
The odd man out appears to be the Treo Pro, in more ways than one: in addition to being a bit behind the tech curve, it is an orphaned smartphone in the U.S. market. It will make much more sense in European and Pacific markets, but its unsubsidized price may deter many Windows Mobile OS fans. But if security is a major concern, while all three smartphones exhibit vulnerabilities, the Treo Pro may be the safest of the three (if you consider Windows Mobile underneath to be reasonably secure recently, given the news about hacker attacks on iPhone and BlackBerry phones).
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