Palm sprints to stay in race, Treo 800w arrives at Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel Corp. and Palm Inc. are pushing hard for enterprise customers with their new Treo 800w, the first Palm device to offer Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity, with broadband speeds.
In Sprint Nextel’s case, the carrier needs to retain high-value corporate customers.
For Palm, a new Treo raises questions about the company’s progress on a new smartphone platform to succeed the Treo line. The company has recouped some smartphone market share with its popular Centro device that sells for $100 or less after rebates, but the slim device also carries slim margins that haven’t bolstered the company’s financial picture.
Sprint Nextel and Palm emphasized the new Treo’s enterprise-friendly Microsoft Corp. Windows Mobile 6.1 suite of productivity tools, compatible with Microsoft’s System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 for security, device management and access to corporate VPNs.
The device went on sale yesterday at Sprint Nextel for $250 with a two-year contract, after discounts and a $100 mail-in rebate.
The launch comes as Apple Inc. has delivered its 3G iPhone 3G enterprise-friendly features, intruding on market territory once ceded to the likes of Palm, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Research In Motion Ltd.