Palm – still waiting for a savior

Palm’s rolled out its latest Windows Mobile phone – the Treo Pro. Reviews are mixed; some call it its most polished design to date, others call it a lacklustre, boring offering.

My personal experience with it – it’s certainly more streamlined than previous Treos, with good build quality and a nice, but not excellent, screen. Windows Mobile users might take a shine to it, but apart from that the phone doesn’t exactly redeem Palm’s failing fortunes.

And it’s boring. Unabashedly, undeniably boring. Is it a Treo? Or is it a Treo trying to be a BlackBerry? The Treo QWERTY thumb keyboards were what sold a lot of business users on the phone’s merits. But the keyboard in this iteration just doesn’t have the same level of comfort though it is a lot prettier.

There still is hope for Palm, or so it claims once CES rolls around. A super secret media-only event will show off what Palm calls its NEW-ness. It’s inevitable that it will be a new device. But the real question is whether it will be good enough to keep the Palm brand alive. Or will it just be another bland disappointment?