I tried out Gmail Mobile last night. I downloaded the Java Application for my Treo 650, and installed it. Then logged on to Gmail via the Treo's Blazer web browser. The Gmail page gave me the option of downloading the Java Applet for Gmail on the Palm. It took a couple of tries to get the Java application to install the applet, but it finally worked.

I gave it a quick spin, and much like the Opera Mini Java Applet, it loaded fine, asked me if I wanted to use airtime to connect to Gmail, connected and allowed me to futz around with my Gmail inbox.

My conclusions? Not worth the huge footprint that installing Java requires (On my Treo about 1.5 Megabytes). For a device with only 24 MB of usable memory, and one that will get flaky if it gets below 5MB, Gmail Mobile offers nothing compelling. It is far easier and less resource intensive to just add my Gmail account to Chatter Mail, and download it periodically, rather than adding an additional application.

Granted, Gmail for Treo is in version one. As the product matures, or once I get my Treo 680, with it's larger memory footprint, it may be worth it.
At this point, I just cant see dedicating almost 2MB's of precious memory to a proprietary email solution.

I might feel differently if I was using Gmail as a portal to all of my email addresses, but I am not. Even under those circumstances I probably would not, as the interface is just not as "roomy," as Chattermail, and of course there is no Push functionality.

Like most things from Google, Gmail Mobile is getting a lot of initial play. All the techie types want to give it a spin, including yours truly. But the novelty wore off quickly, and it did not last an hour on my Treo, before being uninstalled, along with the bloated Java Virtual Machine (Which Palm should have loaded in ROM).

So if you use GMail as your main or only email application, and push is not important to you, this application may have some merit, otherwise, skip it and save the space...

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.grupo-utopia.com/blog/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2906