Palm planning a Symbian-powered Treo?

This all feels a little dubious, especially since Palm CEO Ed Colligan said flat out during this past Monday's announcement of the new Windows Mobile-powered Treo 700w that they wouldn't be doing a version for Symbian, but Guy Kewney over at newswireless.net isn't one to mess around, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt when he says that Palm engineers have built a prototype of a Treo running on Symbian. Certainly makes sense that Palm's engineers would build a few to see if it could be done, but will a Treo running on Symbian ever see the light of day? Guy suggests that there could be an announcement about this as early as this month, but that the problem is that the Symbian Treo isn't as good as the Windows Mobile version because Nokia is holding onto some "core Symbian code" which apparently is needed to make the phone work better. In other words, don't hold your breath.

[Thanks, gaurav]

[tino @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Holding on to the OS isn't something Palmone did to the licencees and Toshiba? How ironic.

In any rate, I don't believe it. So when is the Apple/Motorola E680 iPhone coming out? ;)

[Dick @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Well, Nokia doesn't own the OS, the Symbian consortium does and that is NOK, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and I can't remember whom else.

Nokia does own Series 60, Series 80 and Series 90, which are interfaces for the Symbian OS. The UIQ interface for Symbian OS would, IMO, make the most sense for a Treo as it is touch screen and keyboard ready (a la the SE P910) and Symbian itself owns UIQ. So I can't see NOK holding code as a hurdle of any import.

Great thing about a Symbian phone, when the battery goes all the way down, you don't lose everything on the phone.

[Oliver @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

I might just buy a Symbian based Treo, but I certainly won't be buying a Windows based one.

That's assuming I haven't already got my dirty mitts on a Nokia N70..

[Tapani @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

When the battery goes all the way down you don't lose everything on the phone. In Windows Mobile for Smartphone this has been true for a long time and with Pocket PC true since Windows Mobile 5.0. I have a WM2003 smartphone and I have never lost any information.

I think Nokia phones (e.g. 9300) would be much better with Windows Mobile. The screen resolution would be used more efficiently. Take for example the title bar. In Series 60 it takes about 25% of the screen height just for a large icon and a small title text.

And USB Phone-PC connection. It never works well with Nokia phones and PC Suite is just horrible.

People who don't like Windows Mobile have usually never really used it. It's just the hate against Microsoft.

[Tapani @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

I think Nokia wants to license S60 or S90 to Palm. And does UIQ support a square screen resolution (240x240)?

[Oliver @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Re: Tapani, yes it is the hate against M$. So? I do hate them. I won'd buy a computer with windows, and so I won't buy a phone with Windows either, no matter how good it is. I've got no problems admitting that.

[Cashmore @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

"People who don't like Windows Mobile have usually never really used it. It's just the hate against Microsoft."

This is true, but I don't think there's anything wrong with having an opinion about a company and acting accordingly.

[Sanity @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

"People who don't like Windows Mobile have usually never really used it. It's just the hate against Microsoft."

I disagree. I've used various Microsoft Smartphones (C500, C550, MPx220) and Smartphone edition really is poor.

The cameras are all crap, the bluetooth support is *terrible*, there's no GPRS counter and UMTS on a Smartphone is no-where to be seen.

I much prefer the Series 60 UI too. Text messaging is faster and a lot of the options in the Series 60 menus can only be acheived through registry hacks on Microsoft Smartphone.

There's also a lot more (and more advanced and better quality) software for Series 60 too.

Pocket PC is pretty decent, but Smartphone edition stinks.

[Permanent4 @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

I see nothing wrong with hating Microsoft. Microsoft hates all of us every day.

What I want to know is this: Why hasn't Nokia come up with a Series 60 phone with a QWERTY keyboard on it? Seriously, if the 6682 or N70 had a QWERTY on it, I would have switched from Verizon to Cingular to try it out.

Ah, well, I've got my Treo 650. Maybe in 2007...

[Grandpa @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Personally I think the Smartphone OS is great. I've been using it for years for email, internet, pocket streets and listening to music.

I've never found any modern phone or smartphone UI to be easy or clear. They are all arbitrary and it's a matter of what you're used to.

A GPRS data counter is crucial for Europeans but it's a non-issue here in the unlimited data plan utopia we call the US of A.

[Shaun @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

A treo with Symbian on it would be little more than a larger SE p910 so there's little point really. The SE p910 is a better phone. Smaller, no sticky out aerial, better battery life, better made.

[dgduris @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Ah! But a Symbian Treo opens Europe to Treo and Symbian to America (though much less so than Treo to EU).

AS for M$. It is not about hate. It is quite simply about from whence one came: in 1992 I had a palmtop computer that was multi threading, had a great Agenda program and could pick-up my MCI mail at a pay-phone. It ran for about a month on two AA batteries. As that OS evolved is was so far ahead of anything palm or wince could do it was embarassing for my colleagues who carried around their little battery-powered index card of a daily schedule. When I retired my last Psion a year ago, it was still pretty far ahead of everything out there in terms of what I could do with it. Nah! It didn't have color or Bluetooth, but it was multi-threading, I could manage projects and calendars and databases and sync those with M$ Project, Outlook and Access. I could compose documents with embeded tables and graphics and print directly to a printer. I could pick-up e-mail using my mobile as a modem via IR. And it still ran for a month on two AA's!

So it isn't about hating M$. It is about having come from a space far, far ahead of them.

[Sam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

"I see nothing wrong with hating Microsoft. Microsoft hates all of us every day."

You're paranoid. Microsoft doesn't even know you. Only the people who know you hate you.

[TZK @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

I never get to get information as to what class od CPU goes into a Symbian phone.. since the treos like to use TI, or xscales, I wonder what this will do for the OS speed wise. obvious if it comes out, it will be quicker, but, I dont think they would be popping in 500Mhz models for the Symbian.. though, that 7710 slow as hell, so if a symbian treo were to evolve, it would need a serious boost. But, maybe its the S90 that was keeping the speed down on the Nokias. Anyway, I would think it would kick some ass to get Palm to run all the major OS's uncluing a mobile lunix version like midori or whatever.

The palm treos are a good handhelp playform in itself, but with people preserrfing one OS to another regardless of how better or whatever another might be, PALM might as well come out with hardware that can run any OS... and sell them too. Why not?