Clearwire (mostly owned by Sprint) had their first quarter earnings call and promised to launch two WiMAX smartphones by the end of the year. The first will come from Samsung, described as an "Android-based 3G/4G/WiFi device optimized for heavy video and video communications use" and the second from HTC which was dubbed a "3G/4G/WiFi enabled phone." Clearwire even went as far as saying during the call it wasn’t the EVO 4G but a yet to be announced Device.

Why should webOS lovers care? No 4G Palm webOS device was mentioned whilst the company felt entirely comfortable pre-announcing two other WiMAX based smartphones. Whether we can deduce anything from this remains to be seen, however that mythical Palm C40 is looking a lot less like a WiMAX webOS device now. But hey, look on the bright side, HP said they’re doubling down and there’s always the hope that will mean a faster hardware cycle.

Here’s the real question: do you care about 4G yet? Must the next webOS device on Sprint have 4G or else be annihilated by the likes of the EVO? Have your say in the comments below!

Does Palm need a 4G device to compete?Market Research

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In the wake of the news that Radio Shack is no longer carrying the Sprint Palm Pre, we’ve been getting some information that gives hope to one of our fond wishes: that Palm straight-up end of life the original Palm Pre and Palm Pixi and replace them both with the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus on Sprint. It’s time for some good old-fashioned rumor-mongering.

A couple of RadioShack employees have said they’ve heard from Sprint that they’re aiming to get those very devices by ’summer.’ We also have heard from a few Sprint people that Sprint and Palm are no longer sending out refurbished units for warranty replacements. If your Palm Pre breaks, you get a shiny new one instead of a factory-refurbished one. That could be a sign that Palm is straight-up giving up on trying to refurbish old units and instead would rather clear out remaining Pre inventory in preparation for something new.

Of course, our fondest wish is for something fresh and new instead of just more Pre Plus. On that front there’s been the barest of movement on the rumors surrounding the mythical C40 from Sprint’s product backend. Apparently a quite reliable source is dropping hints that we can expect a thinner, wider, faster, 4G-enabled phone with a form-factor that still stays true to the Pre’s slider roots. We like the sound of that. 

Thanks all you anonymous tipsters!

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Never underestimate the investigative search prowess of PreCentral members. Shadow-360 tips us to let us know that he’s done some digging based off some information dropped by TopTongueBarry and the results bring us a sliver of hope that the full-touchscreen, slate-style, high-end halo webOS device we’ve been hoping for could indeed be a reality in the coming months.

It begins with TopTongueBarry, a self-professed AT&T IT employee who posted saying that not only has testing finished for the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, but that testing will soon begin for a mystery device codenamed ‘Elan.’ That matches up well with previous forum sluethery, wherein ToniCipriani noted that May 10th looks like as good a date as any for AT&T to release the Pre and Pixi.

But back to that Elan. It’s new to us and it was new to Shadow-360, who took to the Google and posted his results: Several accessory manufacturers had once listed devices as compatible with the Elan but since took that information down. TopTongueBarry also provided some hints: AT&T testing for the Elan should begin within about two weeks, scuttlebut within AT&T says that the device should have a ’soft keyboard,’ be released in Europe initially, but may be made available unlocked in the US. All that points to a iPhone / Nexus One slate format, as does the fact that some of the accessories Shadow-360 tracked down were also compatible with the iPhone.

So where do we stand with all this hunting around? Either it’s smoke and mirrors and Elan is simply another code name for the O8F-CASC / US GSM Palm Pre Plus or it’s what Shadow-360 and TopTongueBarry suspect: something all-new and the most exciting thing going for webOS rumors given that Sprint’s mysterious C40 still hasn’t shown its face

Bonus rumor-mongering: Why call it ‘Elan?’ Well, another ‘Elan’ in the tech space is a Taiwanese company that sued Apple for multitouch patents. If this even comes close to panning out, that’d be schadenfreude-riffic.

Update: Soorma finds this site identifying the Elan with the Palm Pixi, in case things weren’t muddy enough for you yet. Shadow-360 also found this site showing the same.

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Analysts say all sorts of different things about Palm, and when we’re hearing something wild from just one of them we tend to discount it. But when multiple analysts and supposed insiders are chattering about something we have to sit up and take notice, even if we’re still not completely buying it. The latest Palm rumor falls into that camp: Palm is developing a WiMAX (4G) device for Sprint and could be unveiled as early as this month at CTIA.

We’re not entirely sure what to make of this. There is always the almost mythical Palm C40 floating around in Sprint’s inventory systems, but we haven’t heard anything other than rampant speculation about what Palm’s next products might be.

As for all the talk about how a WiMAX phone will save Palm… That, like the existence of the phone itself, might be wishful thinking. Like it or not, WiMAX still has a relatively small footprint and Sprint is still a network with half as many subscribers as competitors Verizon and AT&T. A WiMAX Palm phone would be undeniably awesome, but it would also mainly be compelling to a small subset of users on a small network. 

Thanks to DeltaSPARTAN003, EtuTreo300, and spectre686, and, well, a lot of other folks for the tips!

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Palm’s failure to gain traction with variations of the Pre and Pixi in several key markets, including the crucial North American market, has been troubling to fans and investors alike. The handsets are compelling products to be sure, but it’s quickly becoming apparent that jump-starting the company’s sales efforts may require the release of a new flagship device to increase consumer mindshare against current (Droid, 3GS, et al) and future (refreshed iPhone, new Android devices) competition.

According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Palm is well aware of this fact and is actively developing a new handset (C40, anyone?) for release later this year. This, in combination with a better-executed launch on AT&T later this year, could will hopefully help.

This probably isn’t a terribly shocking revelation to many as it’s generally been anticipated that Palm would release updated hardware around the time the original Pre was released last year on Sprint (June). The real question is this: Can updated hardware and new carrier partnerships get Palm back on track to realize its sales goals?

[via everythingpre]

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According to Forbes, Sprint’s first WiMax handset – the first 4G handset from any US carrier – is expected to be available in the first half of 2010. While most logically expect that the phone will be the Android-powered HTC Supersonic (fitting name for a 4G phone), we have to wonder – could it be the C40?

Well, maybe. Frankly, we have no clue. In fact, the lack of info about the C40 has been driving us batty. But a summer launch would coincide with the Pre having been out for a year on Sprint – just in time for a full refresh. At the very least our no-evidence-except-for-intuition expectation is that Palm will release something that will amount to the Pre 2 on Sprint in the summer (or at least that what those of us on Sprint are hoping for), and there’s no reason that the C40 couldn’t be this device.

But why would we want a WiMax phone? For one, the interwebs would be ridiculously fast. Like mind-blowing fast for a phone. In theory, it could be faster than most Wi-Fi connections (Wi-Fi download speeds are limited by the slower ISP they’re hooked up to). With all that bandwidth – again, this is just speculation here – there’s no reason that a WiMax phone on Sprint couldn’t do voice and data at the same time – just run the voice over VOIP (technically EVDO already supports this). But a WiMax radio would only further amplify one of the biggest hurdles Palm is trying to overcome with just EVDO and HSDPA: battery life. Unless they’ve got a ridiculously efficient WiMax radio, a Palm phone with a stock 1150 mAh battery would last, oh, an hour. Maybe.

All that said, chances are that you don’t have WiMax service where you live, at least not yet. Sprint currently has WiMax coverage in a handful of cities across the United States, but in partnership with their quasi-subsidiary Clearwire are rapidly expanding coverage. Sprint expects to add New York City and San Francisco to their WiMax roadmap soon, a move that is sure to tempt many a frustrated iPhone user in those AT&T bottleneck metropolises. Additionally, despite the acceptance of LTE by carriers worldwide, global WiMax deployments are accelerating. eWeek notes that by the end of 2010 combined global WiMax coverage in 147 countries is expected to surpass 800 million people, and one billion a year later. Currently WiMax deployments cover around 620 million.

[via: Engadget, Android Central]

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Welcome to Round Table, which is in fact not a table at all. Round Table is a continuing series on PreCentral where we pose a question to the staff and they provide their thoughts and insights. The question could be something simple like “what’s your favorite webOS app?” or something a bit more complicated, like “where does Palm go from here?” Or maybe we’ll just end up chatting about our favorite movies, you never know. This time around we’re dispensing thoughts on something that has puzzled and eluded us for months: the Palm C40.

read more

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For just a minute there, we bet you were thinking all the magic, intrigue, and mystery had gone out of your relationship with upcoming webOS devices. After the Verizon Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, there seemed to just be a long line of slightly tweaked and updated models as far as the eye could see.

Take heart, friends, for the Palm C40 has been spotted again in Sprint’s systems, according to  Phone Arena. We first spotted this mysterious beast back in August and thought then that we were looking at the Pixi. However as that connection became dubious (the Palm 120 is the Pixi), the C40 looked to just be a mirage.

It still could be a mirage, but since Verizon negotiated an exclusive on the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, Sprint-users need something to point their camels towards. In the meantime, we’re pretty much flummoxed as to what this C40 is. If you’re not, you know how to find us.

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If you’re looking for a way to irritate Pre owners on Sprint and Bell, here’s a good one: Verizon won’t be getting the Pre currently released, instead they’ll be getting one that’s been updated. The Examiner claims that the version of the Palm Pre to be received by Verizon will in fact be updated. The rumored updated Pre will be “one that has more memory (or a micro-SD slot), has a slightly bigger screen, and one that fixes the screen bleed problem.”

We’re going to put on our skeptic hats and say that only two of those four speculations are even remotely possible: fixing the screen bleed (which newer Pres appear to have already addressed) and more internal storage memory. At this point Palm is not going to backtrack and add a micro-SD slot or any other memory expansion port to the Pre. Nor is Palm going to make a Pre with a larger screen, as doing so would require a significant redesign of the phone, in which case it probably wouldn’t be the Pre anymore.

In fact, more memory seems likely given the leaked Verizon inventory screen we saw a month ago. If you’ll recall, the inventory showed two new Palm devices: the P101VZW and the P121VZW (the Pre on Sprint is the P100). At the time we speculated that the P121 was the Pixi, but a later Sprint inventory screen that showed a P120 and a C40 put the kibosh on that thought. So the P120/P121VZW must be an upgrade Pre of some variety, and the only logical conclusion is that it has more memory, likely 16 GB instead of the current 8 GB. So will Verizon get an updated Pre? Probably, but so will Sprint (and probably Bell), so we can all relax, be happy, and store more.

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As reported at TechCrunch, Palm’s second webOS smartphone, the Eos (codename: Pixie) will be unveiled this week. The debut will take place as part of Fashion Week in New York City. The Eos is expected to be approximately the same size and layout as the Treo Pro, though will run webOS and sport a capacitive touchscreen a touch shorter than the Pre’s. The cellular carrier the Eos will land on is still somewhat of a mystery. It has been rumored to be landing on AT&T, though there has been no conclusive evidence to support the suspicion. It is possible that the Eos may also be the Palm C40 phone spotted in Sprint’s inventory system.

The timing is just about as unusual as Palm’s launch of the Pre just days before the iPhone 3Gs became widely available. Tomorrow Apple will be putting on its annual music event where they are expected to unveil a revised iPod lineup. As always, stay tuned to PreCentral.net for all the latest.

Thanks to fresh for the tip!

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