Palm rolls out Treo 680 with free Google Maps

Apprehending the users’ nerve to make mobile set beyond the talking device, Palm Inc. on Thursday introduced a version of its Treo smart-phones with Google Maps to be available soon in the U.S.

Palm yesterday has announced the launch of Treo 680 smartphone at a press conference at DigitalLife in New York City. The Treo 680 is a Palm OS powered GSM/GPRS/EDGE smartphone, aimed at casual users.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Palm said its U.S. retail and online stores will sell exclusively an unlocked GSM version with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 1GB SD Card, a stereo headset, and a 30-day free trial to its music service.
The company said that it would begin a 25 million-dollar marketing campaign to expand demand for the product beyond its base of business users.

The Treo 680 smartphone features an internal quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) antenna and a hardware design similar to Palm’s recently launched Treo 750v, making the device smaller and sleeker than its Treo predecessors in the U.S.

The Treo 680, which comes in a variety of colors including graphite, copper, article and crimson, is powered by Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It runs a 312 MHz Intel processor and has 64MB of user available storage memory and 64MB of SDRAM. The screen is a 320 x 320 pixel color touch-screen display.

The 680 infixes a full size SD slot for memory expansion. It has a slimmer 1200 mAh rechargeable battery for up to 4 hours talk time. The latest device can also be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder, video player, IR and Bluetooth v1.2 wireless. With dimensions of 2.29" x 4.40" x 0.8" inches (58.4 x 111.8 x 20.3 mm), the device weighs in at 5.5 ounces (156g).

The global provider of handheld computing and communications devices, Palm has also announced a free download of Google Maps for the Treo smart-phones including Treo 680, 700p, 650 and 600. Google Maps software is tied to search engine giant's online service and informs users about traffic conditions in 30 U.S. cities, provides driving directions, movable/scalable maps, and local search results for business locations as well as satellite and aerial views. The service will enable users to save favorite locations and routes.

Although the exact pricing of the new offering has not been revealed by the company responsible for popular products such as the Zire, Tungsten PDAs, Treo smartphones and the LifeDrive, yet it said, the Treo 680 will be available in an affordable price.

Palm President and Chief Executive Ed Colligan said the price of Treo 680 smart-phone would be more affordable than previous models. He attributed the device as "more friendly and approachable" model.

In the coming weeks and months, global carriers will announce additional product specifications, availability and exact pricing.

Palm, which targets consumer, business, education and government users worldwide, intends to intensify its access not only geographically but also demographically with this new launch.