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palmOne president on the future of smartphones
New Era of Mobility: Everyone is mobile, everything is digital
palmOne President Ed Colligan eventually wants the Treo to become the "primary device you go to" for accessing information. That was the message from today's keynote at the CTIA convention in San Francisco.
The following are notes from the keynote
Colligan started out by sharing his experience how useful his Treo is; closing business deals, MMS messaging, email, international phone calls - all in one day, while enjoying his son's football game.
palmOne's primary design philosophy: People First
According to Colligan, people want more than plain email and voice on their mobile devices. They want Word, Excel, Movies, Photos, and a rich browsing experience. "People need access to data and information." The Treo platform is heading in that direction.
- Always available email and voice communications
- Immediate access to mission critical data and apps
- Full web access
- A personal, handheld device that is fully integrated into their individual lifestyle
palmOne wants to empower individuals to be more successful, and they do so by focusing on making devices that are a natural extension of ourselves. Colligan claims this helps increase our individual productivity.
Usefulness and Usability
To succeed, a smartphone needs to be both useful and offer usability.
Usefulness - Can the smartphone do what I need it to? Uncompromised phone/email functions, uncompromised web access, and easy everyday tools. Is it an open platform? Is it powerful enough? Is it secure? Is it an industry standard design?
Usability - Unending adaptability. Can I use it easily?
Colligan claims that palmOne has defined the mobile computing category, and that they will continue to innovate.
Treo 650
Today Colligan is pleased to announce the latest palmOne's product, the Treo 650. They are launching with Sprint, and will be bringing it to GSM on AT&T, Orange, Cingular soon.
The 650 is the beginning of a "new family" of devices from palmOne. They want to continue to build on their legacy.
3rd Party Applications
Steve Bush from palmOne demonstrated some applications for Treo 650. They used PDAReach to show he Treo 650's screen directly on the slides - very efficiant.
Handmark's Pocket Express - The online driving direction capabilities were demonstrated.
VersaMail 3.0 - Steve offered a quick overview of VersaMail. The bundled email application now supports up to 8 POP3/IMAP or Microsoft Exchange email accounts. VersaMail supports direct Exchange server integration. Attachment support, using Docs to Go, was also demonstrated.
Avocent - Avocent's motto is "Manage, Support and Secure your Mobile World". Their service allows you to manage wireless assets (Treo Smartphones) and monitor all device details, including battery life from a central control. It can control installed software using policy control software, and lastly can erease the memory of devices via some form of communication between the device and server. It can list everything about the Palm from a central web based application. This software looks amazing!
Wrap Up
Ed once again stressed that palmOne is all about empowering the indvidual. In the future, PalmOne sees new networks (UMTS/EVDO etc), and exciting new applications and devices that takes advantage of these high bandwidth networks. He offered streaming media and rich browsing experiences as examples.
palmOne is striving to make the Treo the device that you use first when accessing information (think Google searches or accessing sales data), rather than your laptop or desktop computer.
Where is palmOne headed? Maybe in 2008 we will "watch a streaming Presidential debate?" (As long as the data rates are cheap enough).
PalmOne looks forward to create more incridible tools to allow for more freedom of use.
Keynote over.
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