Palm has had better days.
Once leading the pack in mobile computing, Palm of late seems to be clinging to life by resigning itself to the ranks of hardware manufacturers like HTC.

Palm fanboys lamented the day Palm announced it had embraced Windows Mobile in their lineup of devices, and after the Foleo fiasco, many enthusiasts gave up any hope of Palm re-emerging as the undisputed king it once was. Some speculated this was the beginning of the end for Palm as we know it.

Palm is not going out without a fight, however.
The release of the wildly popular Centro breathed some new life into the Palm OS by breaking free of the average Treo design, and making a device that was more attractive to a younger crowd- choices of colors, a slim and polished body, and it more than made up for any lack of new features with a $99 price tag on release.

But, this didn’t mark the end of the Treo line of handsets. Last week, Palm released the Treo 800w, a Windows Mobile 6.1 handset with all the fixin’s:
GPS, EVDO Rev A, 128Mb of ram, WiFi, a sharp, high resolution (320×320) screen, and despite being almost as thick as the older Treos, the curved new stylings and button layout of the Centro.

It’s interesting to note that the Centro runs Palm OS, and is geared towards the low-end younger crowd consumer, whereas the Treo which runs Windows Mobile is geared towards the advanced user / corporate professional.

What is Palm trying to say about its own OS?
Are they going to make any Palm OS based Treos anymore?

With the talk of new open platforms giving even WinMo a run for its money, where does that leave Palm?

Are they destined to become merely hardware engineers for other platforms?
And if so, will they be able to compete with HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and all the others already creating devices with identical OSs?

Well, I played with a Treo 800w, and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the build quality, despite the fact that HTC already has devices on Sprint with similiar features.
There is hope…

You can read my mini review on the Treo 800w here.