[whmurray]

.........Are next-day shipments also commencing on Sat? Thanks!!

Right.

[trellus]

...every morning, my co-workers ask me... "so, WHEN are you getting your phone, again?" They've heard me talk about since last summer... and since I ordered it way back in November from VC. Given that a brief look at the posts on this forum show people backordered from P1, I'm thinking the phone I thought I would get in Dec or January (at the latest!) won't be at my door until potentially late March/early April. I've started to think I might really need to evaluate my other options, since I've really needed a modern smartphone (I'm on a Treo 90/Sony Ericsson Z600 combo, for Pete's sakes!) for about 6 months but had (erroneously!) thought I should stick with the Palm platform, and I was unwilling to buy a 600 due to the lack of bluetooth (I LIVE on my bluetooth headset) and crappy 160x160 resolution....

... But jeez, the enthusiasm I HAD for this phone is just exhausted.... *if* I stick to my guns and wait on this vaporware (for me, at least -- yes, I know a few lucky dogs have this already, but I've been waiting for this since Nov and even before), I will hardly be enthused about it but rather just relieved I *finally* have a converged device that's HALFWAY decent. Needless to say, my initial enthusiasm had me evangelizing this product to all my co-workers and associates, and now I'm the laughingstock of the same for touting a product that more or less doesn't even exist! (I'm sorry, but if you can't just go out and buy one today, it doesn't exist for all practical purposes.)

Any one have thoughts on other smartphone GSM options? I really doubt that PalmOne is going to be viable in a couple of years, and I think the Palm platform is going to be, at best, a very tiny player in the years to come, sadly.

[MacUser]

Okay, I go on vacation starting Friday. I REALLY want my Treo before then. I wanted it this week to get it all set up for a romantic week together. Shhh, don't tell my wife that part. Anyhow, I'm calling the Cingular store when they open and ask what I can do to get a 650 today. I doubt they'll have one though...

[Boobookins]

...every morning, my co-workers ask me... "so, WHEN are you getting your phone, again?" They've heard me talk about since last summer... and since I ordered it way back in November from VC. Given that a brief look at the posts on this forum show people backordered from P1, I'm thinking the phone I thought I would get in Dec or January (at the latest!) won't be at my door until potentially late March/early April. I've started to think I might really need to evaluate my other options, since I've really needed a modern smartphone (I'm on a Treo 90/Sony Ericsson Z600 combo, for Pete's sakes!) for about 6 months but had (erroneously!) thought I should stick with the Palm platform, and I was unwilling to buy a 600 due to the lack of bluetooth (I LIVE on my bluetooth headset) and crappy 160x160 resolution....

... But jeez, the enthusiasm I HAD for this phone is just exhausted.... *if* I stick to my guns and wait on this vaporware (for me, at least -- yes, I know a few lucky dogs have this already, but I've been waiting for this since Nov and even before), I will hardly be enthused about it but rather just relieved I *finally* have a converged device that's HALFWAY decent. Needless to say, my initial enthusiasm had me evangelizing this product to all my co-workers and associates, and now I'm the laughingstock of the same for touting a product that more or less doesn't even exist! (I'm sorry, but if you can't just go out and buy one today, it doesn't exist for all practical purposes.)

Any one have thoughts on other smartphone GSM options? I really doubt that PalmOne is going to be viable in a couple of years, and I think the Palm platform is going to be, at best, a very tiny player in the years to come, sadly.

I understand your frustration. Given that your reason for jumping ship would be availability I'll limit my comments to phones available and shipping right now. None of them are as good as the 650 in my opinion and all of them are more expensive. My 650 GSM is on backorder right now (after much frustration just getting P1 to successfully process my order which I'm still not a 100% certain is correct) but the guy said the BO situation for unlocked phones recently changes from 7 to 14 days to 3 to 9 days which I took to mean they're gonna start shipping as soon as 3 days from now (for people who ordered on the first day of availability.) What that means for VC who knows but I'd bet you'd have to add at least a week or two before they start shipping. Based on how the Sprint thing went VC will ship in about 2 weeks is my guess. Wait if you can.

Okay so you don't want to wait 2 more weeks for your phone to ship. I think the only other viable options are the Nokia 9500 (brick, no touch screen, symbian OS which while popular for phones has a tenth of the available 3rd party software, and expensive.) The SE 910 (symbian OS, extremely poor to unusable thumb keyboard - I've tried keyboard and it's complete garbage, and expensive.) Finally there is the PDA2K (expensive, and form-factor is a matter of taste but many say poor for one handed operation, plus I went on some discussion boards and there seems to be a defect with the keyboard sliding mechanism where it comes loose and the keyboard won't stay in the closed position and the manufacturer won't cover this under warrenty because they consider it as wear and tear issue even on phones that are only 2 weeks old.)

I don't know of another phone CURRENTLY SHIPPING that is feature comparable than the 3 I mentioned above. (I've been ready to give up on Palmone more than once but lack of an alternative has kept me.) I think there are a lot of interesting phones on the horizon though so P1 better shape up.

Actually or you could get a Blackberry. If I absolutely had to turn my back on P1 at this point I would seriously consider a BB as an alternative. Not very expandable, primarly focused on excellent email operation, none of the whiz bang factor of playing music, movies etc, but well made, simple, reliable and inexpensive.

[aethyric]

Okay, I go on vacation starting Friday. I REALLY want my Treo before then. I wanted it this week to get it all set up for a romantic week together. Shhh, don't tell my wife that part. Anyhow...

macuser - it's all about diversions! i told my S.O. to go ahead and buy half-lifeII (he was so concerned about abandoning me for a few weeks, the darling) in preparation for my T650 arrival. get her something shiny and new to play with, too, ja?

-ae

[MisterEd]

Definately cancel the one from VC. That way I'll get mine "1" sooner. Seriously though, you'd be nuts to cancel it even if you don't want it. You could sell it for almost twice what you paid for it on eBay.

Any one have thoughts on other smartphone GSM options? I really doubt that PalmOne is going to be viable in a couple of years, and I think the Palm platform is going to be, at best, a very tiny player in the years to come, sadly.

[Barney]

I Have a VC GSM on Order since nov 7th, and in trying to get an early "650 Fix" I Ordered another through My Cingular Business Data rep (Plus all the others that i need for the Office" Delivery WAS scheduled for yesterday. Got a call from My rep first thing this morning to say that they have yet to hit the warehouse for the central illinois area. Also spoke to the Her boss 15 min later He said that Cingular had a 60 day exclusive on the GSM phones....
When I told the president of the company He told Me to cancel the order for the 650's and He ordered 15 Kyocera 7135's we will have them this afternoon......

[MisterEd]

Kyo 7135 .... talk about jumping into the frying pan. I just sold my (7 time replaced) one. It was a nice phone with lots of problems, especially the horrible problematic keyboard. If people complain about the dialing delay on the Sprint 650, the 7135 makes that look fast. I waited close to a year for that one. It was a far worse ordeal then with the Treo 650. Obviously he went with Verizon.

When I told the president of the company He told Me to cancel the order for the 650's and He ordered 15 Kyocera 7135's we will have them this afternoon......

[Barney]

Kyo 7135 .... talk about jumping into the frying pan. I just sold my (7 time replaced) one. It was a nice phone with lots of problems, especially the horrible problematic keyboard. If people complain about the dialing delay on the Sprint 650, the 7135 makes that look fast. I waited close to a year for that one. It was a far worse ordeal then with the Treo 650. Obviously he went with Verizon.

I Know its Also on another network (Local Owned) but do to the continuing delays and My boss's past experience with his t600 (On #3 Right now) the decision was taken out of My hands

[MisterEd]

Tell him to make sure he gets an extended warranty.

I Know its Also on another network (Local Owned) but do to the continuing delays and My boss's past experience with his t600 (On #3 Right now) the decision was taken out of My hands

[Barney]

Tell him to make sure he gets an extended warranty.

At this point He doesnt care , this is a quarter Million dollar project waiting on these devices . And I certainly didnt want to purchase 3 year old technology.

[trellus]

Boobookins,

Well, thanks for the perspective; you're right, it seems there aren't a whole of other options, given my requirements at least. I want either a PPC or PalmOS smartphone so that I can have a fully converged device with useable KEYBOARD. That pretty much narrows me down pretty quickly, as you pointed out. OR, I can continue on the two separate devices (phone + PDA), but the phone must have bluetooth, and the PDA must have bluetooth BUILT IN (so I wouldn't have to waste a slot), AND must have a useable keyboard. Again, the latter limitation (useable keyboard) on the PDA SEVERELY limits my choices as built-in keyboards alone seem to be rare on modern PDAs. AND, since I have a preference for the Palm OS, that also limits my choices, although this is the least of my requirements because I would be willing (I'd grumble, but I'd do it) to switch to the PPC platform.

So I guess I'm stuck waiting on the Treo 650.

[100thMonkey]

Well, I don't fit anywhere...I didn't receive my GSM 650, I didn't get it from VC

I broke down and went to the frackin' store and bought one today. I wanted two but the manager said he had to send the unit to another store. Arsehole.

So, I won't sleep tonight. So, technically I'm still waiting for one more Cingular model and then until Summer '05 for the VC SIM free unit

[Barney]

is there Anyone left thats Waiting for thier VC gsm 650 who hasnt gone and purchased one from another source? I'll bet there will be close to 519 unlocked gsm's available on ebay as soon as VC ships them out..... Sad Isnt it

[specimen38]

Availability is the issue... Barney....my guess is that PalmOne wants to have as many Unlocked 650s available to full $699.00 paying customers as possible. A release to Vienna Channels for 519 would flood the market place with confusion and price gauging. The net effect would probably slow sales down(skewing supply and demand) and discouraging "demand" which would result in anyone believing they needed to spend $699.00 to own a 650.

[Barney]

Received this from Joe Yesterday

Barney --

The latest word I got from our shipping is next week. But please don't
hold me to it, as it's slipped on me a couple times. I'm really happy
the Treo is selling so well, but it's killing me that I can't get you
your units sooner.

Thanks for your patience,

Joe

[100thMonkey]

Well, this party is over...turn out the lights...you're not in my subscriptions anymore