The Sunnyvale, California-based handset manufacturer shipped its first WM5-based phone, the Treo 700w, on Verizon Wireless’s EV-DO network in the US, but had already promised a product for the much larger world of GSM, which in its 3G and 3.5G flavors means W-CDMA and HSDPA, for later this year.
Now it has signed a deal with Vodafone at the corporate level, as well as with Microsoft Corp, on the development of a phone, the details of which EMEA VP Roy Bedlow was keeping to himself in conversation with Computer Business Review.
All he would reveal is that, like the 700w, the new phone will feature the Pocket PC version of WM5 rather than the Smartphone edition, which means touch-screen functionality, copy-and-paste, the ability to save images and sound files, edit documents and so on. In other words, it is more of a mobile computer than a smart phone per se, though clearly those distinctions are blurring.
In announcing the deal, Palm also said the first Vodafone countries to see the new phone will be the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Netherlands, presumably with other geographies to follow.
This is not the first time Vodafone has shipped Palm devices. It launched the Treo 650 (based on the Palm OS) in Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland where Swisscom Mobile is an affiliate, and Vodafone has a minority stake. This is, however, the first time a corporate-wide deal has been struck with the world’s largest multinational mobile operator. Bedlow said a similar multi-country deal exists with France Telecom’s Orange division for the Treo 650.
