Cingular Wireless Offers New-Look, $199 Palm Treo 680

ATLANTA & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cingular Wireless and Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today introduced the new Palm® Treo™ 680 smart device, whose brand-new look, broad range of features and economical price will appeal to both consumers and business customers – just in time for the holidays. The Treo 680 quad-band world phone on the Palm OS® platform – which is available beginning Friday, Nov. 24, for as low as $199.99⁽¹⁾ – boasts Palm’s hallmark ease of use to keep any user productive, all with a slim and compact feel.

Cingular business and consumer customers will be able to better balance their personal and business lives, as the all-in-one Treo 680 seamlessly combines a compact, full-featured mobile phone with so much more, all at a competitive price. Users can do even more with their phone, from accessing email and editing documents at the airport to organizing photos and music while waiting for a friend at the coffee shop.

Market research firm In-Stat estimates that 25 percent of all wireless handsets worldwide will be PDAs and smartphones by 2011, which makes the Treo 680 the ideal phone both for feature-phone upgraders and new users.

The Palm Treo 680 is easy to use and affordable because of the multiple innovations it encompasses:

• A new internal antenna enables a sleeker design;
• An improved phone application on the Treo 680 smart device allows users to dial faster;
• The ability to ignore calls with a quick text message lets users tell a caller “I’m in a meeting” or “Can’t talk now”;
• The large, bright color screen is perfect for viewing email, documents or spreadsheets via DataViz Documents To Go®, and even photos and movies;
• The highly regarded built-in QWERTY keyboard has improved buttons, making it even easier to type emails or SMS messages;
• The messaging application displays text-messaging conversations as “threaded chats,” similar to IM, so users can see their entire conversation with a particular person; and
• The Treo 680 smart device also can be used as an MP3 player and has an integrated digital camera, camcorder and video player, with simpler organization for photos and photo slideshows.

“The Palm Treo 680 will open up the popular Palm experience to a much wider audience of Cingular customers,” said Jeff Bradley, vice president, business data services, for Cingular Wireless. “This next-generation Treo comes with all of the outstanding business features that Palm devotees have come to expect plus rich entertainment capabilities, and all at a very attractive price that will appeal both to businesses and individual users.”

The Palm Treo 680 operates on Cingular’s nationwide⁽²⁾ EDGE network⁽³⁾, the largest national high-speed wireless data network in the United States with availability in more than 13,000 cities and towns, and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. Treo 680 users also can take their device with them abroad to make calls on six continents and over 190 countries, with wireless data roaming in more than 115 countries⁽⁴⁾.

EDGE’s widespread coverage makes the Treo 680 an ideal platform for business customers and consumers who want an easy-to-use way to check their email, send SMS, browse the Web and more.

“Palm remains focused on introducing Treo smartphones that are user-friendly and affordable for any audience – from single users to wide-scale business deployments,” said Tara Griffin, Palm vice president and general manager. “The Treo 680 from Cingular Wireless is an excellent proof point. We have a tremendous opportunity to serve customers the world over by helping them stay more connected to important people and information, whether it’s through contacts and calendar, email, messaging, documents, web browsing, photos or music. This mobile phone enhances work and leisure time.”

Business Customer-focused Solution

While Palm’s ease of use and affordability are beneficial for new or upgrading consumers, business users also can take advantage of the Treo 680 smart device, because of the following:

• Flexibility: The all-in-one Treo 680 smart device is ideal for deployment across any business, small or large, and offers the security and flexibility needed by IT departments for easy integration;
• High return on investment: Because of its attractive price and ease of use, the Treo 680 brings increased mobile productivity to help businesses realize a quick return on investment, all in a budget-friendly smart device;
• Staying productive: Phone, web, add-on business applications and more help customers stay in touch and on top of their work; and
• Staying connected: Customers can access such Cingular-enabled wireless email solutions as Cingular Xpress Mail, Microsoft Exchange Active Sync⁽⁵⁾, and Good™ Mobile Messaging from Good Technology, as well as POP3 and IMAP accounts.

“The Palm Treo 680 smartphone is a natural and affordable choice for our business,” said Robert DeLille, chief executive officer of Creative Office Environments. “With more on-device memory and the availability of intuitive applications, such as Google Maps for Mobile, on the Cingular Wireless network, our workforce can be more productive and stay in touch with customers and colleagues.”

Pricing and Availability

The Treo 680 is available beginning Friday, Nov. 24, for as low as $199.99 to consumers and businesses nationwide at Cingular Wireless retail stores, www.cingular.com, select national retailers, through Cingular’s B2B sales organization and at http://www.palm.com/treo680. A variety of monthly data plans are available, including an unlimited Cingular PDA Connect plan for $44.99 per month.

For a limited time, the Treo 680 will come with a music bundle from Yahoo!, which includes a 30-day free trial to its Yahoo! Music Unlimited To Go service and Yahoo! Music For Mobile. Users have the ability to access the Yahoo! Music Unlimited music library from the phone and to send tracks remotely to a PC.⁽⁶⁾

The Palm Treo 680 from Cingular Wireless also supports a wide variety of third-party, Cingular Wireless certified applications, such as the TeleNav GPS Navigator™ solution. With TeleNav GPS Navigator, Treo 680 users now can get turn-by-turn voice and on-screen GPS directions directly on their device for use when driving or walking.⁽⁷⁾

For more information, please go to www.cingular.com/treo680.

About Palm, Inc.

Palm, Inc., a leader in mobile computing, strives to put the power of computing in people’s hands so they can access and share their most important information. The company’s products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm^(R) Treo^(TM) smartphones, Palm handheld computers, and Palm LifeDrive^(TM) mobile managers, as well as software, services and accessories.

Palm products are sold through select Internet, retail, reseller and wireless operator channels throughout the world, and at Palm Retail Stores and Palm online stores (http://www.palm.com/store).

More information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com.

About Cingular Wireless

Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 58.7 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation -- the ALLOVER™ network -- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover®, the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/.

(1) With two-year voice and data contract from Cingular Wireless.

(2) Not available in all areas.

(3) The Treo 680 is designed to be compatible with networks implementing GSM/GPRS/EDGE standards, but networks may not be available in all countries or within countries in which it is deployed.

(4) Access available within network coverage areas only. Availability and coverage depends upon carrier and the geographic scope of international roaming agreements.

(5) Requires Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and access enabled by IT administrator.

(6) Offer available only through Treo 680 purchases made on Palm’s website or in Palm retail stores.

(7) Requires separately purchased Bluetooth GPS receiver and subscription to TeleNav GPS Navigator service.

Broadcast Video and Other Palm Materials

Broadcast video and other materials are available online from Palm’s Multimedia Library (www.palm.com/MultimediaLibrary). Press can register at the site, which is hosted by The NewsMarket (www.TheNewsMarket.com), a web-based news and video archive, to browse and preview an extensive content library and order footage directly from their desktops. Registration and ordering on the site is free.

Palm, Treo and LifeDrive are among the trademarks or registered trademarks owned by or licensed to Palm, Inc. All other brand and product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.