14 DAY TRIAL // One of the most popular handsets the Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm has released on the market is the Palm Treo Pro, a smartphone running under Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. The phone has been around for quite some time, as it went live in August 2008, and now it seems that its maker has finally decided to pull the plug on it.
A two-year-old handset is not quite a relic, one should agree, yet Palm's focus on devices running under its own webOS mobile platform has closed the door on Treo Pro, it appears. The only smartphones that can be seen on Palm's website are the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi, both being available in the US via Sprint and should land on Verizon Wireless' airwaves as soon as Monday, January 25 is here.
The Treo Pro was built by the Taiwan-based HTC Corporation for Palm. As phone Arena notes, “the HTC Task Manager was on board to turn off apps and a tool for watching streaming video came from HTC so that users could watch YouTube.” However, the entire mobile phone market has changed since August 2008, and it seems that the Treo Pro might have finally neared its end.
Today's smartphones are far more powerful than what Treo Pro can offer via its 400MHz processor, and also boast larger and higher-resolution displays (Treo Pro features a 320 x 320 pixel screen). However, the 1500mAh battery inside this handset is still something that can top the charts. But one should agree that this is certainly not enough to make a smartphone competitive in today's mobile world, which has been greatly influenced by the emergence of Apple's iPhone.
The Palm Treo Pro is not dead yet, but it might not be too long before its death certificate is actually signed. The Sunnyvale-based handset vendor does not have it listed on its website anymore, but enthusiasts can still find it at other various sources, as Engadget notes. For what it's worth, only those interested in adding it to their personal collection of Palm devices might still want a piece of it in the end.