The palmOne Treo 650:
Expected to be released in
the United States before
the end of 2004, and
in other countries, early
in the new year.
[ Photo courtesy of palmOne. ]

AT&T Wireless appears to be laying the foundation for a launch of the Treo 650 on its GSM/EDGE network before the end of 2004. There is now a Treo 650 page on AT&T Wireless' website in the mid-to-large business data devices section.

The December ship date projection was made in an article on Brighthand yesterday.

Last week, many outlets reported that Sprint PCS would be the only U.S. carrier to ship the Treo 650 before the end of the year. At CTIA, John Garcia of Sprint said, "We will be the only ones with these phones for a while. We are very excited about buying a very large quantity of these."

Two carriers supporting the Treo 650 almost immediately is better than one. I think Sprint PCS got a disproportionate share of the Treo user base to sign up with it by being the first carrier to offer the Treo 600. They held that share for a long time because of the length of the contracts that they offered to early Treo users. Many people had issues with customer service and network robustness in some areas, but muddled through.

Everyone considering a Treo 650 purchase at this time ought to realize that AT&T Wireless and Sprint are still among the lowest ranked carriers in the J.D. Power wireless service ratings. Operation Gadget reported on these ratings back in July. I'm confident that Cingular and AT&T Wireless are focusing on improving their total quality as they integrate their two organizations, but they have been far behind T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless for a while in the minds of mobile phone users.