"Some sources have informed us of a rumor which would include the brand new TX2 which will be launched at the end of 2006 including a 4 gigas flash memory which is really a breakthrough for Palm. This new model would be expected for the end of 2006."
Palm Insider



As a long time fan of the Palm Computing platform, and an owner of the imperfect but fascinating Palm Lifedrive, I have been disappointed of late with Palm's failure to capitalize on their long term leadership in handheld computing technology. Through vendors like HP, Microsoft has continued to make inroads in the area of smart handheld devices and as I wrote yesterday, the reign of the Treo may be over with the introduction of HP's new 6900 series handheld/smartphone.

The Palm TX, with its big screen, fast processor, bluetooth, wifi and 128mb of memory, has been a stellar performer for Palm, and few have complained of it's usability. The only issues I have seen with the TX has been related to it's cache and the Blazer web browser, which has been a huge failure on all the Palm devices using it. According to early reports, the version shipping on the new Treo 700P (Blazer 4.5), may have fixed these problems. Time will tell.

The Lifedrive, with it's 4GB hard drive has been a disappointment for Palm and based on reading the user forums at Brighthand, a great deal of users. My own experience has been just satisfactory. The device has an uncommon (For Palm Devices) tendency to reset, is a bit slower than my previous Palms and just "seems flaky at times.

For a device I use daily for business, this is less than an optimum user experience for me. Most trying has been the times when I was working with a client and needed to access data on the LD and had it reboot in the middle of a process. This would not be so bad if it did not take up to 2 minutes to reboot.

At that point, one's confidence is shaken and one becomes unsure as to whether or not to repeat the process that caused the reset.

If Palm comes out with a flash memory based TX2 that has the same capacity of the Lifedrive, without the flakiness and slowness of the internal hard drive, I would be tempted to make the switch... If this rumor proves to be false, it could be too late for Palm to recover. It still may be, as the competition is a lot more robust in the handheld space than it once was. By the end of 2006, there could even be an Apple branded smart phone out there. But regardless of whether Apple enters the fray or not. Competition is here and more coming. While the first UMPC devices have been duds so far, Sony has entered the fray, and a lot of buzz is being created around their device. UMPC's have the potential to use the Lifedrive model and create a killer lightweight mobile computing device, with little or no compromise. So far these devices have not delivered on the promise of power at a PDA type price, with long battery life. But they will...

However, the issue may be moot for me by that time, as I fully expect to have a new HP 6900 smartphone, and a large SD card by then, eliminating the need for an additional device.

I have made up my mind that despite healthy sales of our Costa Rica guides and renewed interest by advertisers in ISOU blogads, that I will probably not BUY a Treo 650. Now if anyone wants to give me one, that is an entirely different story...

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