Palm OS Isn’t Dead Yet. Not Quite, Anyhow

By  |  Monday, January 25, 2010 at 7:33 pm

Engadget has taken note of the fact that Palm has seemingly removed the Treo Pro–the last Palm phone that wasn’t a WebOS phone–from its site. It’s the end of an era–the first decade and a half or so of Palm’s existence leading up to the announcement of WebOS and the Palm Pre a year ago.

Well, sort of. Palm hasn’t completely excised the Treo Pro from its Web site. It just removed the navigational links that help you find it. Google for “Treo Pro,” and the first link you get is to a page on Palm’s site where the Pro is apparently still for sale:

The Sprint link takes you to a page where the Pro is priced at $149.99–the same final cost as the Pre. There may be a rationale for buying the Pro–a phone that was sort of a nicely-refined dinosaur even when it shipped in 2008–over the Pre, but it’s escaping me right now.

Besides, the Treo Pro may have been a Treo in name, but it was a Windows Mobile phone. That meant it didn’t have the bloodline going back to the first PalmPilot. Even if it’s all been discontinued, it’s not a major moment in the history of Palm. The major moment came when the company’s final Palm OS device went off the market.

Or has it yet?

Google the word “Centro,” and you’ll find a Palm.page on the Centro, which I think was the final Palm OS phone:

While the page offers to help you buy a Centro, it seems to be a phantom–as far as I tell, the links don’t work. The major moment that was the passing of the final Palm OS phone came and went, and I didn’t even notice.

Except…the Centro isn’t quite gone yet. Sprint still sells it, for a final price of thirty bucks. I’m prepared to accept the possibility that Palm has stopped making the things and Sprint is blowing out the final production run, but it’s sort of endearing to see a Palm OS phone out there in the iPhone/Android/WebOS era. At least for a little while longer. And even though I don’t recommend buying it unless you really like the Palm OS, and maybe not even then…

 
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  1. Ploni Almoni Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 8:24 pm

    I use a few important PalmOS apps and ebooks (though there is a WebOS reader that supports PDB) on my Pre using the “Classic” emulator. PalmOS isn’t dead, it can be run in emulation on WebOS, Maemo, and WinMo phones quite successfully. That having been said, I still keep around my Palm T|X PDA, mostly out of sentimentality and a lack of interest in the hassle of selling it on eBay.

  2. Ploni Almoni Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 8:25 pm

    P.S. my previous phone was a Centro, at the same price as a discounted Pixi though it just doesn’t make sense.

  3. Dora Fang Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    up until yesterday, i used a palm treo 755p. the “p” was for the palmOS and i sync’d with palm desktop. now, i’m happily in the cloud, synergy’d, and on the pre.

  4. Ploni Almoni Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    The Treo Pro is available from Dell for $180 unlocked, which is not bad at all for an unlocked GSM phone, albeit one running Windows Mobile.

  5. Palm OS Downloads Says:
    August 26th, 2010 at 12:43 am

    I fear the same story will happen again but now with their webOS phones. Somehow the company have bad luck, one ofter another. And of course they have no chances after HP bought it. HP is a known company to ruin great products, just remember what happened to Compaq and their brilliant iPaq Pocket PCs. Anyway, there are still hundred thousands of apps written for Palm OS. Just for the sake of those who own these devices, we created an open directory for freely available Palm OS apps. Check the homepage.