Palm taking orders for Cingular-branded Treo 680

It's not entirely clear whether someone at Palm jumped the gun here, but a page on Palm's own online store now tempts us with a "Palm® Treo™ 680 Cingular, GSM" in exchange for 349 of our hard-earned dollars. While it's no secret that we expect the 680 to grace Cingular with its presence any minute now, Inventec's apparent failure to implement a little something called quality control seemed to put the handset's release date in doubt -- alas, Palm's page alleges that their new low-end Treo is in stock with shipment in 1-2 business days. Sadly, we're not seeing a place to select which of the 680's tasty colors we'd like in our pocket, suggesting that this might just be the drab gray one pictured here ("Graphite," as it's known). What, are Crimson, Copper, and Arctic not good enough for you, Cingular?

[Via Reaper PC/PDA]

[D @ Nov 19th 2006 8:20PM]

I thought this was out already. I travel quite a bit for work and I've already seen a few people using antenna-less Treos out and about. You know how business people are with their new toys.

-D

[Scot drucker @ Nov 19th 2006 10:17PM]

http://store.palm.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2526446&cp=1806915&parentPage=family

[Hugh Jass @ Nov 19th 2006 10:20PM]

Scot, why did you post this link? It's already in the article.
---
The kids over on Engadget Mobile are commenting that some HoFo user is claiming this link is -- get ready for this -- a scam. Now I'm not sure how there could be a scam on Palm's own domain, but I thought I'd pass along such nonsense to everyone on this comment page just for giggles and kicks. Sure, it may be posted in the wrong section and the details aren't populated, but I'm really not smelling scam here.

[Hawk @ Nov 19th 2006 10:20PM]

D, that's the Treo 750v, the GSM Windows Mobile Pocket PC Treo that's available for Vodafone in europe.

[ash1348 @ Nov 19th 2006 10:38PM]

The link is legit. Try ordering it and it takes you to Palm's secure site (https) and if you have a user name and password with Palm, it also works.

[Daniel @ Nov 19th 2006 10:53PM]

Just called Palm, they're saying it's not available and that link is not valid. If you order it, it will not ship until they release the 680.

[George @ Nov 20th 2006 3:39AM]

How can it be real. If it's from the Palm website, it should have a picture of a Treo 680, but image not available? Are you kidding me? If you just type in Palm.com and look for it, it's not there. SO how can it be real? Order at your peril.

[Hugh Jass @ Nov 20th 2006 8:35PM]

How can it not be real if it's on Palm's own domain? They certainly haven't been hacked into, and no disgruntled Palm employee is trying to trick us. Just because the page hasn't been linked to yet doesn't make it a scam. Obviously it's not ready for prime-time; I doubt they expected anyone to find the page. It was probably dynamically generated anyway. Look alive, people.

[SwissFreek @ Nov 20th 2006 9:53AM]

I think it was announced in the launch party that Cingular would have the Graphite and that the nicer colors would be for the unlocked version. I love the orange one and would love for Cingular (hello? Orange is their color?) to carry it, but boring is their name, so...

[Michael @ Nov 20th 2006 12:09PM]

I just got off the phone with Cingular. The guy told me that it will be out by next Friday (Dec 1) and that it will sell for $200 (After $100 mail in rebate) with a two year agreement and unlimited data. He also said that he is almost positive that Cingular will only have the Graphite, but he was not 100% sure. He did seem a little unsure of the info because he said that they were just told the updated release info this morning. I guess we will see if its true.

[[e-mail] @ Nov 20th 2006 1:13PM]

We are recieving them this week supposedly.
We got the dummy phone in last week and had it on the price reports as a sellable sku starting today....

[mrhonest @ Nov 21st 2006 3:15PM]

You guys are worried about nothing. The 680 is available right now at your Cingular store. I just saw it in person at a store in the metro Washington DC area. I am holding off for the 750, but the 680 is available in metro sexual Graphite.

[Me @ Nov 21st 2006 5:23PM]

No word yet @ cingular on release date as I work data support for their phones.

[Christian Staack @ Nov 21st 2006 6:05PM]

HI,

I ordered the Treo 680, here is their response:

Thank you for shopping at store.palm.com, your business is important to us. We received your order 8603430092-000, which included advanced sale items that are unavailable for immediate shipment. Once the product is available for processing, you will receive a new order confirmation email. The following item(s) will be shipped when it is in stock.


Item: 1049NA-CN
Description: PALM Treo 680 Cingular, GSM
Quantity: 1 @ $ 349.00
Shipping Method: Standard Ground
Arrival dependent upon the shipping method selected.


Please remember that your credit card will not be charged until the
item(s) has shipped. When the item(s) becomes available for shipment, you will receive a confirmation email with the shipping details.

Please visit our online Help area for answers to questions about your order. If you are unable to find the answers you need, you may contact one of our Customer Service Specialists through our online e-mail form, also found in the Help area of our website. Please note: This email message was sent from a notification-only system that cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Best regards,

Customer Service
Palm, Inc.

[George @ Nov 22nd 2006 2:40AM]

Looks like you can order it on palm's website now.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo680/index.html

Cingular service. My mistake.