Ed Colligan, Palm's CEO, looks determined to fight for a position in the multimedia smartphone market.
Surprisingly, Palm's Ed Colligan took the time to reply to an open letter from the infamous Engadget blog that urged Palm to come up with an iPhone competitor. Through Palm's own blog, Ed Colligan says that "it is very early in the evolution of the smartphone and there is enormous opportunity for us to innovate". Furthermore, he states that "we have only just begun to fight!"
In our opinion, any serious iPhone competitor would be highly welcome, be it from Palm or anyone else. At a recent event, we got hands-on time with Palm's upcoming Centro smartphone. It'll offer all the functionality of the Palm Treo 755p - Palm's current flagship smartphone - and be targeted towards the lower-end of the market.
Most interestingly, however, is the fact that Palm will need a new flagship smartphone ready by the time the Centro is released later this year. At least to us, it wouldn't make sense that a smartphone aimed at the lower-end market equals the features of a flagship smartphone.
Anyway, having worked on a new Linux OS for some time, attracted a former iPod designer to its team, and acquired the ACCESS web browser, it has been no secret that Palm wants to make a second attempt at offering a multimedia device (the first was the non-connected LifeDrive).
So, will the Centro become a line of traditional messaging smartphones, while the Treo line evolves into multimedia-centric smartphones? It wouldn't surprise us if that's what will eventually happen.
A couple of years ago, business smartphones were the hottest thing on the market. Now, many users want multimedia smartphones that can also carry out business tasks. The first manufacturer that can offer the ultimate combination of multimedia and business features will likely hit a jackpot.
Whether Palm comes up with such a solution already this fall is hard to predict. But for whatever it's worth, we wouldn't at all mind a surprise like that.
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