"What we think we've been able to do is combine all the power of the industry leading handhelds from Palm and add an integrated two-way radio that's always on and always pushing your email and messaging to the device. So effectively what you have here is everything people know and love about Palm handhelds, plus now you have wireless email capability as well as wireless messaging capability."
That always on connection is what has made the RIM Blackberry popular in the corporate market, which Palm plans to pursue. The i705 has a monochrome screen to preserve battery life. Palm says a charge can last up to a week. And it sells for 449 dollars. The wireless service plans range from 20 to 40 dollars per month. Palm is hoping those subscription fees will bolster its bottom line. Unlike the new Treo Palm device from Handspring, Palm chose not to build in a wireless phone...
"What we see we've created here is actually an extension of what people expect from a handheld. We've added integrated communications capability to it. Let the phone be the phone as we like to say internally, because it's really optimized for doing that voice transmission."
One drawback is, the i705 won't be upgradeable to take advantage of higher speed wireless data networks that will be rolling out in the not too distant future. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.