Palm C40 crops up again in Sprint system, sees its own shadow 76
For just a minute there, we bet you were thinking all the magic, intrigue, and mystery had gone out of your relationship with upcoming webOS devices. After the Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, there seemed to just be a long line of slightly tweaked and updated models as far as the eye could see.
Take heart, friends, for the Palm C40 has been spotted again in Sprint's systems, according to Phone Arena. We first spotted this mysterious beast back in August and thought then that we were looking at the Pixi. However as that connection became dubious (the Palm 120 is the Pixi), the C40 looked to just be a mirage.
It still could be a mirage, but since Verizon negotiated an exclusive on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, Sprint-users need something to point their camels towards. In the meantime, we're pretty much flummoxed as to what this C40 is. If you're not, you know how to find us.
76 Comments
Maybe its a new webos device that will be released by Sprint in cdma form and its one of the two devices to be released by ATT in gsm flavor. Rime will tell...maybe
All I know is that it better be a 3G/4G, 3.1"+ touchscreen, vertical keyboard, slightly curved slider phone that resembles a polished river stone or I will have nothing over it!
It's the blackberry killing, webos replacement for the treo pro, coming in Q2.
Why would they create a Treo Pro replacement? Isn't the the Pre is essentially a WebOS Treo Pro with a sliding keyboard?
"Isn't the the Pre is essentially a WebOS Treo Pro with a sliding keyboard?"
Unequivocally, no.
Different Operating System
Different Form Factor
Different Screen Technology
Different CPU
Different GPU (Treo didn't even have a GPU)
Different Hardware Manufacturer
Different Development team
Different Management team
Oh yeah, same Company Logo.
...so basically, you have pointed us to all of the good reasons why Palm has moved forward to webOS devices and is almost certainly not going to be looking backwards to the Treos - because I think it's more accurate if you replace all instances of the word "Different" in your post with the word "Better".
Except for the fact that many would like a Pixi "Pro". If I could have a Pixi that was slightly taller to get the 80 pixels back, thicker to take a 2200 mAh battery, with the Pre specs or better (including WiFi and Camera), I'd be happy.
I carry my Pre on a belt holster. I don't notice a difference from my much bigger Treo 755p. Wouldn't mine a full days battery life of HARD use.
You point out the obvious differences, then act like you have dismissed my notion! I clearly said 'WEBOS' Treo Pro 'WITH A SLIDING KEYBOARD'. Since the Treo Pro was a WM device, with a front fascia keyboard, and is a year older than the Pre, would you not assume that I understood these obvious differences and upgrades?! No duh different development and management; the Pre was designed from scratch, not based on the Treo - everyone knows this!
The point is that the Treo Pro was Palm's high end smartphone based on WM, that they have distinctly said they are not making anymore of, which the Pre clearly supplanted at the top of the food chain... hence the Pixi (Centro replacement)! This Palm C40 is completely different from anything we have seen in the past.
With all due respect, there is more than one way to interpret the one liner of your first post. It just sounded to me like someone claiming there was little difference between a Pre and a Treo Pro, except for the operating system and slider. Your second post was much clearer.
That said, my language/tone was a bit dismissive, you are right. For that I apologize.
How is the Pre or Pixi worse than a Blackberry? The Storm is definitely inferior, and the UI for their other devices is pure crap.
Palm doesn't need to kill Blackberry, they're already superior. They need to make that apparent to the masses and accrue market share.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Most of the time, model numbers make some sort of sense. Being as this one starts with a "C", I would bet that it's actually some old Centro that Sprint has in the system only for a very very small number of units; and that's why we see it come and go.
But there are like 30 devices that explicitly say "CENTRO" right below it. Why would the C40 be different?
So, does the "C" and "40" mean it's a super-inexpensive device compared to existing device models? A Pixi Minus?
Or is it so next-generation that it's closer to the power of the Genesis of the Universe, granting it a smaller letter in the alphabet and in numerology alike?
... coffee ...
...I think you're on to something!
I'm going to retract my comment. With Sprint's 4G stuff out (now? later?) they're going to need something that actually uses it. I dunno what the "C" is for, but what we're seeing is probably some early phone that shows up in the system when one guy has a device that needs to be field-tested. It's way to early to tell.
God willing:
ANNOUNCING THE PALM FLASH
For the first ever full-touchscreen device with Flash multimedia capabilities baked in - Now, there's a phone for that.
detroitkruk
Flash is coming to the Pre with WebOS 1.4. (Feb)
But I like the way you think :-)
I think flash is comming a little bit before 1.4 cause it is going to come out in the app catalogue. I'm pretty sure that is what Jon said in the CES video.
The Beta version will be on the App Catalog, probably released around Apple's announcement on the 27th. The final version will be packaged with webOS.
Except it would be called the Palm Phlash
I definitely tweeted this to PreCentral, Prethinking, and EverythingPre yesterday! One would think there would be a "Thanks @Ecoteric, for the tip!" at the end of the article.
So you NEED someone to tweet your horn?
Come on, if you know you gave the news thats all you need to know.
I gave info to sites before and sometimes wasn't given a thanks but I don't get mad about it.
It's called a light-hearted jab, buddy. Nobody is mad or upset.
Thanks @Ecoteric! (but we did see it a little before your tweet and also did get a ton of emails on it :) )
Yeah I know, I was just messin...
And for the record, nice spectacles! I bet you have perfect vision and are just wearing them for the look!
Could be a pda phone without the touchscreen. Oddly such would be announced at CES but lets wait and see wat happens this coming june/july.
WebOS without a touch screen? They would have to replace all the fun gestures with keyboard equivalents. I really doubt they would even consider doing that.
there is always CTIA to announce something
Thats what I think, CTIA they will announce something.
Highly doubt it will be without a touchscreen.
its probably going to be a stripped down version of the pixi. since they feel wifi is not going to catch on with cell phones, hence it not being on the pixi. maybe they feel that memory will not either and get a phone with less storage on top of that. makes since.
the C stands for "Cut everything out of a smart phone and see what happens"
or maybe just maybe
as they said verizon will the the only carrier of the pre plus. perhaps sprint will get an upgraded version but with out the pre plus name. just the pre with more memory and other features..
think about it. pre out on sprint version "A" (first one) Verizon version "B" (second one) sprint upgraded version "C" (third one)
or its called the "Considerably better Pre phone"
Well hopefully we will see next month at MWC if it's anything big.
Are Palm and/or Sprint scheduled to have a presentation at MWC?
its got to be a upgrade to the pre, or another web os device all together. I dont think palm at this point would care to release an inferior phone at all at this point. As stated above the pre plus, and pixi plus is exclusive to verizon, so I think its a new version of a WEB OS phone. It wont prob come out until this spring or summer, but i bet sprint and AT&T will be getting this version around then. It only makes sense.
I'm keeping everything crossed for a 4g Pre, with the same enhancements and updates that were brought to the Pre Plus. (Sans tethering in my case - I need to use laptop and phone both at once too often, a dedicated device for my laptop is a requirement.)
you do know you can't be on the phone and tether at the same time, right?? Anyways they deff need to upgrade the pr?, or come up with the post 4G. Alot of the 1st release date pr? owner are due for an update on june, and as much as I like webOS I'm NOT GOING TO STICK AROUND IF PALM DON't GIVE US A NEW DEVICE..
sprint announced no 4G phones until late 2010 at best
Maybe it is a touchstone accessory. They did say it would be more than a charger after all.
The way those inventory systems work, that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Especially with the HK also being in there.
I think a 4g Pre is a good bet.
It is very curious that AT&T did not say which phones they were getting. That leads me to believe they will be getting new or updated phone from Palm. Possibly the same one that is coming to Sprint.
Could the C40 be that phone?
Nope. Nope, nope nope! It's simple: See, Cathy, in Documentation, is turning 40 this year (C40)and Sprint was trying to organize her surpise birthday party. But thanks to us nerds, now the whole company knows, and Cindy is sitting at her cubicle, sobbing, 'cause first off, she didn't want anybody to do anything'because she is turning 40 and second, she just broke up with her boyfriend because she kept dragging him to see "The Blind Side" over and over, just so she could cry her eyes out so more...
I hope you're happy!!
Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
Easily the laugh of the day! Thanks for lightening up the mood.
(I am confused, though: is it "Cindy" or "Cathy"?) :)
With the GPU being enabled, could it be a games orientated handset?
Maybe it is a WiMax device?
As a follow-on comment to my own post, I think that the technological potential of the smartphone market has been and is being strangled by the chokehold of the carriers, who want flashy-but-cheap devices that they can use to lure customers into long-term contracts. The manufacturers - Palm included - are stuck with this because they have no other distribution channel. The carriers are only interested in driving revenue, and, I think, are missing an opportunity to diversify their business models into the sale & support of the coming generation of "new" always-connected devices. They should be looking to compete with Dell, just as Dell and Google are planning to compete with them.
But, that's just me.
I believe Smartphones or any feature phone for that matter would be less expensive if the carriers were not involved. If the consumer was able to go to a store, purchase their respective device, and activate it on his/her carrier of choice. The carriers have too much power over the manufacturers.
Palm should build a world phone. Buy it and activate it on what ever carrier you want.
Could it be the Pre Plus-Plus??
Could it be a 32G phone with 8G thrown in for good measure?
What? As in a 40G phone?
Actually, C40 is a type of plastic explosive used to demolish competitors' cell towers and other infrastructure. Oh no, wait. That's C-4. I don't know what C40 is.
The picture on the blog post is the old one. I can't find the pic of the new one. It has thumbnail at phone arena but I can't find the whole thing.
Here's what I hope:
It's an all-new, business-class WebOS device that is significantly larger and heavier than the Pre - say, about the size and weight of a Garmin GPS. Still easily pocketable. The entire face of it is a 5" OLED sunlight-readable screen with 800 x 600 resolution. Slide-out keyboard. It has a dual-core 1 GHz processor and a GPU (maybe a Tegra 2?). And a microSD slot for up to 64 GBytes of memory. WiFi, of course. It has Blutooth, as well as a single micro-USB 3.0 port supporting external video (including video projectors), keyboards, mice, etc. It has Docs2Go on it. It runs native Linux apps. It has a front-facing pinhole camera for videoconferencing, and a small LCD display on the back for use with the camera (see below). It has all the security and e-mail connectivity features that the business world needs/demands and couples them with a fingerprint reader for biometric security. There's a small socket for an optional bar-code reader.
With the above, it can totally replace my laptop for routine work, or act as a container for my data when used (as a high-speed, USB 3.0 drive) with my office or home PCs.
Now, the killer feature: Palm licenses the guts of a DSC camera - including the retractable Zeiss lens with 5x optical zoom AND the real flash - from Sony. No more crappy camera in my snmartphone. Finally, I don't have to carry a camera AND my smartphone around. I also dispense with my GPS. And my laptop.
They also license the cool little charger that Sony has for DSC-series cameras, and - wait for it - they BUILD IT IN TO THE DEVICE. Touchstone is cool, but a flip-out plug that is always there is way cooler.
Finally, they re-hire some former Palm engineers and re-do their "PIM" software for WebOS, bringing it up to date. I don't give a damn if it syncs with Facebook, I DO need it to maintain a merged database of contacts (customers), to-do lists and events (calenders). It is blazingly fast; screen updates happen in approx 1/4 of a second. The potential for location-enable company automation software is incredible.
It will be offered without a contract (not from Sprint, obviously) for about $1,000. More than any other smartphone, sure, but consider what it's replacing: any "other" smartphone I have, a good-quality camera, a laptop and a GPS - and all their chargers. Sure, it's larger and heavier than a Pre, but it's replacing four devices that together weigh ten times what it does. It is the one and only device that I need/want to carry around with me. With it's built-in charger, it is totally self-contained.
I'm happy. I buy one for myself. I buy one for all our sales people and I save myself mucho $ on laptops. I buy one for all our developers and feel better that our code is secure. I buy one for all our tech support staff so they can support customers from anywhere. Palm offers a few Foleo-style desktop docks for use with it, and I replace many desktop PCs with them. In fact, there are relatively few positions in our company that wouldn't benefit from having one.
At about $1,000, anyone else want one?
Soooooo... basically, the Palm Tablet computer? With built-in phone capabilities? Nice!
only if it would include build in smoke screen (for quick get aways) and a grappling hook with auto retraction
Holy multi-touch, Batman! This is getting better!!!
While I would hope for a more robust, full featured business class phone, with business class PIM, my guess is the opposite. An even cheaper device than the Pixi, roughly the same size, but with a larger screen and no keyboard. That's if it exists at all.
I suppose the 4 in the code could be a clue for a 4G (wi-max)phone, but given how limited wi-max coverage is that seems pretty unlikely to me.
Sprint has announced a phone with 4G (wi-max)built in it is both 3g and 4g.
http://www.softsailor.com/news/15292-rumored-a9292-wimax-4g-phone-soon-a...
"In a recent snapshot, an A9292 WiMAX phone from HTC will be soon added to Sprint`s offers. HTC manufactured a WiMAX phone before, and now will probably come with something new, based on the previous experience. Sprint recently rumored that will make WiMAX available also on handsets, and the first 4G handset will run Google Android."
I would think that Palm would want to take advantage of this as well. With a phone that uses OTA for backup and updates, higher speeds mean better performance.
Friendly reminder: I wouldn't pin any hopes on Phone Arena when there's nothing else out there remotely backing them up.
how about a better made Pre, less plastic, more metal. Please.
less plastic, more glass...roughly 3.7 inches of it should do the trick
Glass, metal, 4" screen, real keyboard, massive battery. Big and heavy is fine...just make it great!
...and with just three points you can triangulate!!
Holy crap, guys...
C 40
G 4
4G!!!!! It's real!!!!
allllllrighty then
Even still stuck on O2 Germanys old 1.3.1 (when do we finally get 1.3.5 officially?), I love my Pre and find new ways and shortcuts in WebOS every day. Palm has definitely the best mobile OS at the moment, especially after the CES announcements.
If they release a Tablet with WebOS they were really in a position to have an iphone/islate killer combo.
A WebOS Tablet is even more useful than most netbooks and could replace most laptops for home use, I think.
So, come on, Palm, make Apple sweat a little more and give us a Palm WebOS Tablet!
C40 = Cellular + 4G ,,,,may be ?
I agree with everyone that says it will be a 4G device. Sprint already has WiMax in 27 markets. Another few dozen to added this year. What Sprint IS missing is a 4G capable phone. Also, i think this will be a 100% new device. I don't think its a Pre "pro" or something.
Not that I don't absolutely love my Pre, but I will dump it for any new 4G/3G Sprint Palm WebOS device with a touchscreen and a keyboard... Although, I am now madly in love with the vertical slider, and now hate all horizontal sliders, that means you, Droid, Moment, etc!
i got a feeling that that must be something better then the pre plus
if yook at the price i think its even expencier than the pre or the same
but any way it has to be a webos palm but it has to be better way better
great hope am right
Where did you see a price? The screen shot says $1.00
'C' = Clearwire? I'm new here, so please forgive my ignorance.
DRAT!
Just when I was about to pull the trigger on a Sprint Pre after being disappointed that no updates were coming to the Sprint side, you post this rumor again. AHHHH!
I think it will be a 4G device. I HOPE it'll have a portrait sliding keyboard, and a memory card reader, that would be sweet!
Arg, right when I buy my pre...should I return it?
C40 = Capacitive 4.0 inch touch screen?
No tablets! A new smart phone for AT&T!
On the subject of build quality, Why does'nt Palm contract with HTC or Samsung for them to manufacture its smartphones and just slap the Palm brand on it?
HTC & Samsung mak pretty good products (imho).
I think the c stands for centro. Maybe palm is making a new version of there ever so popular centro. Maybe a twist of both the centro and the pre. In my opinion though, I think palm will never make a new slider phone untill theyre ready. You couldnt even put a case on the pre without it overheating or having to worry about how thick it is.
Oh and I just took a second look and the fact that its a dollar makes me think: Phone or charger?