Drucker: A New and Improved Treo

This past weekend, details on new smartphones from Palm emerged on The Boy Genius Report website.   Is this the beginning of the new and improved Palm?

I recall back in early 2007 Palm executives had hinted at researching new form factors for their smartphones.  It appears that all of Palm’s hard work is beginning to pay off.  Since the introduction of the Treo 650 in the fall of 2004, Palm has been criticized for not offering Wi-Fi in their Palm OS smartphones.  If the rumors and leaked documents are to be believed, the new Treo Drucker will finally put that criticism to bed.  In addition to being rumored to have built-in Wi-Fi, the Drucker is also expected to be running Windows Mobile 6.1 on a 320x320 display like those found in the Treo 755p.  Also rumored to be in the Drucker is a 2.0MP camera (addressing another long running complaint) and Bluetooth 2.0.

The question is, will people buy it?  Drucker is clearly being geared for corporate customers and power-users who love to push their mobile devices to the limit.  For the corporate road warriors, having Windows Mobile 6.1, the very latest version of Pocket Office, and the higher resolution screen is probably enough to make Drucker an worthy upgrade from the Treo 750v.  I suspect that Drucker will begin to roll out in corporate fleets of Treo smartphones during the regular corporate hardware lifecycle.  “Prosumers”, other wise known as corporate customers who purchase their own technology, will upgrade as their wireless contracts expire or as they need to change out their existing phones.

The Drucker is good news for European customers, but what about customers here in the United States?  Will we get Drucker also?  Or will there be two devices based on the same design platform?  Is Drucker the next generation GSM Windows Mobile smartphone, and the rumored Zeppelin the CDMA/EVDO version?  If I had to guess, Drucker will likely be called the Treo 850 when it ships.  I suspect that the Vodafone edition will be called the 850v, following the same naming convention that is in place for the Treo 750 and 750v.  Again, if the rumors are accurate, the Zeppelin will be called the Treo 800w and will be available primarily in North America.

Another question is how much pent up demand is there for a device like Drucker?  Will long time Palm customers trade in their Palm OS devices and make the switch to Windows Mobile to get the new hardware platform?  How much discomfort are average customers willing to endure as part of that transition?  Customers coming from the Palm OS will have to learn new software, or in some cases, as Jeff Kirvin recently blogged about in an article called Ubiquitous Capture, learning new ways of doing things that are almost taken for granted on the Palm OS platform.  And once people have moved to Windows Mobile, will they be willing to move back to the Palm OS platform when the new Linux operating system is finally ready?

I have been a Palm customer for the last 9 years now.  During that time, my daily use device has always been a Palm branded Palm OS device.  With Palm OS II devices still a year away, I am considering a switch to new hardware for two reasons.  The first is to take the opportunity to learn a new mobile operating system and the related software.  The second would be a means to upgrade way from the annoying stability issues that plague the Treo 700p.  If I chose to make the jump to Windows Mobile for 2008, I plan on coming back to the Palm OS next year.  Will you?

Let us know what your thoughts are on Drucker and whether or not you will consider switching in the 1SRC forums.