Another New Price Point For Smartphones: Free?
It could be that the good folks at MyTreo.net have confused Cingular Wireless with Santa Claus.
Don’t get me wrong. I hope they are right.
Yes, the FCC has greenlighted both the Treo 750v and the Treo 680, and they’re both expected to roll out at Cingular any minute now. But until now it’s been suggested that these phones would be priced on a par with their competition. The Treo 680, as an “entry level” smartphone, would wind up going for somewhere between $175 and $200 from Cingular, with a 2-year deal, after incentives.
MyTreo.net is suggesting otherwise. They suggest that, if we’ll be patient, the Treo 680 will be “quickly given away for free“. Free, that is, as long as you sign up for a Cingular data plan.
That would be huge. Cingular’s data plans are somewhat more reasonable than Verizon’s. Verizon Wireless has been trumpeting its now-discounted-to-$100 Motorola Q. A “free” Treo 680 is arguably much more attractive than the Q to many users. Treo already has a large, loyal fan base (not unlike BlackBerry) and the new 680’s slimmer form factor could make it a winner with the look-and-feel crowd now being wooed by the Q and the BlackBerry Pearl.
Cingular (with the help of Treo’s parent, Palm) could take a giant step toward making the smartphone a device for the masses. (This is exactly what Verizon wants to do with the “Q” and T-Mobile wants to do with the Pearl - sell a gajillion of them to people who didn’t even know they needed smartphone.)
Nothing will make that happen faster than the magic word: “free”.
Nevertheless, I’ll be surprised if that happens any time before mid-2007.
And again, I sure hope I’m wrong.
[via MyTreo.net]
November 16th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
[...] It’s reported that 144,000 new Treo 680s shipped from the factory had to be shipped right back. Someone, it seems, forgot to connect the phone’s internal microphones. [...]