This is a fun time... it's rumor season again for upcoming Palm product releases! The latest rumors are centered around a possible
Treo 800p, but I'm sure more will surface.
Now the most common response to the rumors is that the specs are too good to be true. But the days of wonderful spec rumors are great because until something is released, there is always hope that we'll get the perfect Palm device! I've been through this cycle a bunch of times now, and it never fails to excite me. It never fails to get me hoping for something that's probably not possible, and it puts me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what will really become available.
But one thing I'd say is that when a good device is released, I'm delighted about it. Recently, the PalmOS world has seen what are some of the the best devices ever. But is anyone celebrating? Not many. Mostly just complaints are what we hear.
The last time a device released with "everything we want" was probably the T|X. I was delighted at the time, and I still think it's spectacular. I don't have one, but I would like to have one.
True the lifedrive wasn't as spectacular a success as we hoped, and it did have a few issues, but it was pretty neat also, and you can't just dismiss any device with a screen that nice and so much built-in storage.
But I really never felt that any of the recent devices got the big buzz of praise they deserved. Especially after a long run of what I felt were so-so devices. True, some liked the T3 pretty well, but it had some reliability issues and battery life issues that were pretty severe limitations to its success.
So I wonder. If a Treo anything like recent rumors is released this year or in three years or in five years, will there be anyone saying "wow this is great"?
The fact is, we have a way of being disappointed with almost any realistic product rollout.
Even the Treo650, which has turned out to be a pretty spectacular device, got a little positive hobby press, but never really seemed to get the overwhelming buzz you might expect. All the focus seems to be on weaknesses that really weren't as significant as we all made them out to be. Is it really all that tough to live with a smaller memory footprint or a slightly big form factor? Are the keys really too small, or maybe just right after all? Personally, while no device is completely perfect, I do think the Treo 650 falls square into the "great device" category.
So I guess I wonder if there will ever be joy among Palm fanatics, no matter what the next Treo looks like. Or will we just continue to complain away any good features? It seems that if it's not that infamous "monster" device (you know, the one referred to in the forums with the defibulator and hidef projection tv and other stuff built in), it doesn't really stand a chance of being called a great device.
Maybe it's time we realize that the Palm world is living some glory days. The future? I don't know. And there is a heck of a lot of uncertainty for the years to come. But let's not be so critical that we miss the fun and greatness of the current time.
It doesn't seem anyone else out there is expressing this perspective, so maybe I'm the only one that sees things like this.
Tell us how you feel. Do you agree that these are the glory days for Palm, or do you feel like Palm just always keeps falling short?