Comments on: Palm closing retail stores, paying out Treo owners

Two pieces of bad news for Palm this week (not that there's been a lot of good news lately): it's going to have to pay out cash rebates on some Treos, and it's closing its retail stores.

[thenet411]

Palm needs to give up the ghost

They had their time but their time is over. Palm is dead.

Long live Windows Mobile!

[tashman]

please

I've moved onto a real device the nokia n810. This blows away anything MS could dream off.

[dragonfly8610]

Get real

I have used Windows mobile and Palm OS....and for ease of use when mobile, I'll take Palm OS anytime...Windows is too cumbersome for mobility applications

[AndrewRich]

Let me get this straight

Because my Treo 650 has broken and been replaced twice, I can get a credit... towards another Treo? Let me know when they build a device that (wow!) has WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth 2.

[matt_ernst]

Palm closings

I would have appreciated Palm's support of the Mac community 5
years ago or so. Instead, it seemed they were hostile toward
anyone who used a Mac with their Palm. I'm sorry for their
difficulties.

[bobcode]

They had stores?!

Palms kinda look underpowered and expensive compared to the iPhone. That's not fair, because I can get a Centro for $99 with discounts.

[fred dunn]

They are doing the right thing....

Getting back to their roots (the Palm OS and hardware), everything else is just extraneous.

What they really need to concentrate on is getting easy to use development tools out their so people can develop apps that do not require a great deal of time from thought to code.
This will at some point produce a "killer" app that everyone will want the Palm OS for.

[emsabh]

Multiple failures

I am one of the folks who had failures for both the 600 and 650.
The 600 failed 4 times over 18 months and was replaced each time
by another handset. The 650 failed twice, with a replacement
handset each time as well. Unfortunately the ease of use won out
for me over the frustration of spending time in a sprint store.

[TV James]

Sprint should have been your first clue of problems to come.

nt

[oldguytoo]

i like mine

I like the Palm m515 I use. It still works well.

[bottomline]

The Shift in the PDA World

My company produces real estate application software for both Palm and MS Mobile devices. Our current shift is moving away from specific device platforms and towards internet connected devices regardless of the platform. Yes, not all existing devices are internet capable. Our current applications will take care of that for now, but the future of applications for these devices seems to be on the internet.
From a programming cost perspective, one program written for the internet is more cost effective than the device specific applications. Furthermore, code maintenance is significantly easier.

[Joe A Flores]

Outdated OS

I think this is the main issue with palm, is the same OS.
Remember that was the same problem with Apple in the mid
90's.

[Emilio2000]

My Treo abused, but still works fine!

Due to those stupid latches that are supposed to hold the Treo secured to your belt, but get dislodged easily at the slightest bump, my Treo fell to the ground multiple times, on bare asphalt, on a carpeted floor, on cement, ... and it still works. In fact, it works better than ever. I used to have a few freeze-up (requiring a re-booting), but haven't experienced one in the last year or so.

[Don Mandy]

palm treo

My Palmd treo 650 has been the worst nightmare. My first one lasted only a few days before I sent it back for warrany. Now the phone part no longer works and it does not work well with my computers either....My first palm product was purchased back in 2002 or 03 and I thought I would have learned from that nightmare, but I didn't.

[berock]

Treo 700P has more problems than benefits

When I replaced my aging but stable Kyocera 7135 smartphone (Palm OS 3.5), Kyocera had exited the smartphone business. My only Verizon choice was the Palm Treo 700P to transfer programs and extensive compiled data based on Palm OS, so I thought. The Treo 700P is the most unstable P-O-S I've ever encountered. Palm Support's first solution for the PROGRAMABLE smartphone was to remove ALL programs. Still problems, then it must be my data in Palm's own programs, per Palm Support, so delete that, too. Why then did I spend so much for an ostensibly programable phone???? Even on basic phone functions like SMS text messaging, this phone resets. THE WORST PURCHASE DECISION I'VE EVER MADE! Never again Palm! Never again Verizon (for refusing to admit this phone is unstable).

[W2Kuser]

I want to like Palm, but...

their technology is so klunky & out-of-date that they seem hopelessly behind the curve.

Why can't they simply combine the best features of their competitors into a radical new product line instead of making these tentative, baby steps ("ooooh look, they're offering a NEW COLOR...!")

A sad demise of a true icon...

[xarophti]

Treo

I wanted to like the Treo, but I couldn't do without the Grafitti interface. I can't use those tiny keyboards! Palm seemed to have gotten fat and lazy once they bought out Handspring years ago.