Palm's first claims confuse

IN LAUNCHING the Treo 750v, Palm came out with numerous claims to being first. This led to one publication claiming that the 750v would be "the first wireless email device based on Windows Mobile 5.0 to be launched in Europe."

That honour almost certainly went to Taiwan's HTC which has launched various Windows 5.0 devices including its recently announced S620 and P3600 models with the latter due to be available in Europe this month [September 2006].

So what went wrong? Well, no-one would doubt Palm's first 'first' claim. That the 750v is the first Treo to take advantage of Vodafone's 3G network.

Nor is there much doubt that the 750v will be made available first in Europe. Or that the 750v will be made available first to Vodafone customers.

What probably caused the confusion is Palm's claim that "the 750v brings the Palm experience on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 to Europe for the first time." What this actually means is that other Treos previously offered in Europe were based on Palm's original OS not Windows 5.0.

But the fact that the 750v features Microsoft's Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for Windows 5.0 is not in doubt. MSFP supports Direct Push email but then, so does Vodafone Business Mail.

The Treo 750v is bound to be described as a "Blackberry killer" by some but then everybody's trying to get onto that bandwagon. Even Nokia.

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