PALMOS IS ALIVE and kicking in Asia, even inside devices not from Palm Inc. There's a pair of vendors selling since last year some very shiny and innovative smartphones based on the latest PalmOS 5.4 also known as "Garnet": GroupSense Ltd. based in Hong Kong and also Qool Labs based in Singapore. However both companies have zero marketing in the U.S. and outside Asia, despite all these PalmOS Garnet models (QDA-700 from Qool Labs, Xplore M68 and M98 from GroupSense) shipping in dual language, that is with the capability to be configured to use English OR chinese.

The only distributor shipping GroupSense's Xplore phones in the western world seems to be UK mobile giant eXpansys UK limited, in the US via its local store MobilePlanet.com, where they're often not stocked and demand a 5-working days delay (one week) to get in stock. This is a far cry from the ubiquity of Palm's Treo 650 line, which for instance can be bought unlocked from web retailer giant Amazon.com unlocked for $579. Despite this virtual lack of promotion, and horrible U.S. distribution for PalmOS alternatives to the Treo, I found to my surprise that the Xplore M68, which its megapixel level camera, PalmOS Garnet and Bluetooth capability, is currently at position #5 in MobilePlanet.com's "Top Five" ranking for PalmOS devices.

The current stats page for Palm OS devices on the site as of last week showed:

• #1: Treo 650 GSM/GPRS with 48% of sales
• #2: Palm Z22 with 9%
• #3: Palm Tungsten E2, 8%
• #4: Palm T|X with 7%
• #5: Group Sense's XPlore M68 with 5% of the total PalmOS sales

No interest in selling?

I approached both companies starting around October 2005, trying to get a sample of these phones for review. I e-mailed the PR address of each company with my background, assorted collection of sample INQ articles, and a polite request. All I got was silence. When I asked the INQ's resident correspondent in Taipei, Simon Burns, if this lack of response was something to be expected from Asia based companies, or if perhaps it was a cultural problem and I wasn't approaching them in the right way, Simon replied with something that was a revelation to me: "IN HK, Taiwan, etc, staff lower down in some companies don't have much 'esprit de corps'. Many of them will try to avoid or ignore any non-routine problem - even if that's bad for the company. Their aim is to use the least possible effort in making you stop bothering them, without getting in trouble with their boss. So ignoring you is very effective. Often you have to jump over or break through this defensive wall that protects the company brain" -he said.

Over time, I finally hammered the company's email addresses and fax numbers enough to make a real human being finally get in touch with me. Of both companies, Qool Labs seemed the most responsive and by November 2005, media representative Kim offered a two month load of a QDA-700 "in about a month". By December 2005, I never head back from Qool Labs Pte. and by now I suspect all my messages are either ignored or fall victim of the firm's anti-spam filters.

QDA700 web page at Qool Labs

Group Sense had the most peculiar response: he denied the phone would work in Argentina's GSM networks, despite the fact that the local network down here uses the same GSM 1900 frequency used anywhere else in the world. Company representative Kenneth Tse said: "Regarding M98 sample, regret to tell that the Xplore M98 is an Asian version and it can't be worked in Argentina". By February 4 2006, Group Sense employee Francis promised by e-mail "your case will be referred to our Marketing Director for further follow up". Since I stopped hearing from Groupsense altogether, I tried another route, I contacted James Teo on Tronic, Groupsense's distributor in Singapore. He made a good effort and finally ended up in the same "defensive wall" that our correspondent Simon Burns in Taipei talked about.

Moral of the story

To make a long story short: here we have two companies which apparently make nice PalmOS based smartphones, in the case of the Xplore M98 with a clamshell style that is the most popular down here in South America and which would be a great success, yet they do not seem too enthusiastic about getting a sample phone in the hands of a western reporter in a media with world wide reach like the Inquirer. They also do not have a wide distribution network in the America. Both in the U.S. and also down here in South America, any clamshell style GSM smartphone that runs Palm OS, and which costs less than the Treo line would be an instant success. I know plenty of people who are palm OS fans, but dislike the Treo's design and bulky keyboard, preferring a clamshell design instead.

Incidentally, GSM has been exploding down here, which makes this missed opportunity by these Asian players even harder to understand. A late 2005 report titled "Prospects in Telecom Industry Remain High for 2005 in Latin America" said: "GSM has become the most popular mobile technology for Latin Americans. In fact, in terms of GSM, Latin America is the fastest growing region in the world, soaring by 151% in one year". But hey, WTF do I know. I'm just a correspondent and I live down here.

So leaving Latin America aside, eXpansys also needs to do some promotion of these phones, and perhaps start listing units at Amazon.com to get a wider exposure. Most PalmOS advocates I met online seem surprised when I mention them about the phantom Xplore Mxx phones or the QDA700 from Qool Labs. These are apparently great PalmOS based Smartphones, with a killer price/performance ratio. Consider that a Palm Treo 650 of the GSM flavour and unlocked, with no service plan will cost you $579 at the time of this writing, while Hong Kong based sellers like DOML in Singapore are listing the Xplore M98 at $429, and eXpansys US site MobilePlanet listed the M98 at less than $300 last week but didn't had it in stock..

Xplore M98 specs

If you check the data sheets, these phones are screaming for far and wide distribution both in the USA and throughout Latin America: "SIM-Unlocked, International English Version, International voltage power supply, Palm OS: Palm OS® 5.4, GSM Module: Tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900". However the Groupsense english language "retailers page" has been "under construction" since mid-2005 when I first heard of the company. Can someone find the logic in this scenario?. Great PalmOS smartphones, and companies that make it hard for consumers to spend their hard earned money on them. µ

See Also
Qool Labs QDA700 review with pics
Xplore M68 review by Paddy Tan, Singapore