New Treo Smartphone Images Leaked
Rumor: Two separate sources have posted possible images and specs on two new Palm Treo smartphones. The images show a similar models, one with a new design running Palm OS and another running Windows Mobile Standard (formerly WM Smartphone edition).
Context & Ripple Effects
The leak lands weeks after Engadget Mobile's Treo 755p hands-on showed Palm still iterating on the classic candy-bar Treo shape, and less than a year after the Windows Mobile-powered Treo 700wx arrived at Sprint — evidence Palm was already shipping both of its OS bets side by side. The new images, picked up by Engadget under the device's rumored 'Gandolf' codename, suggest the next step is a slimmer redesign offered in two flavors: one running Palm OS, one running Windows Mobile Standard.
What makes the leak notable rather than routine is the pairing. A same-hardware, dual-OS split would put Palm OS and Microsoft's platform in direct internal competition inside Palm's own lineup, and syndication across outlets like Engadget within days shows how much attention any slim Treo refresh commands heading into the 2007 holiday build-up.
First-order effects
- Palm's next Treo would compete against its own just-refreshed 755p, pressuring carrier pricing on the existing Palm OS models the moment the slimmer design ships.
Second-order effects
- A Windows Mobile Standard variant alongside the Palm OS version forces Palm's software ecosystem — developers and licensees — to pick which platform gets first-class support, splitting a community that until now could follow one OS.
Third-order effects
- If the dual-OS pattern holds, Palm drifts from platform owner toward hardware vendor renting Microsoft's smartphone stack, raising the long-term question of what its own OS is for — a structural tension that shapes every subsequent Palm device decision.
The trend: Smartphone makers in 2007 are hedging across operating systems on shared hardware, letting carrier demand rather than platform loyalty decide which stack survives.