Bad Timing, Bad Money, Bad Attitude

When I attended the Demo Conference in 1996, Jeff Hawkins launched the original Palm Pilot, and I was one of the many there who bought one on the spot. Who wouldn't have? We (gadget freaks, that is) had all been looking for a pocket organizer, and we each had a drawer full of the industry's flawed and failed attempts at such a device. And there stood Hawkins showing us — and selling us — one that actually worked!

So of course we bought them up, and from that point on, despite a brief side trip to Windows-equipped handhelds, I've been a loyal Palm user. In the interest of full disclosure, I've also been a cell phone user since the days when you had to bolt the unit in the trunk of your car, take half the interior apart to run wires through to the handset, and screw an antenna into the roof — and I bought one of the first pocket cell phones a few years later. I've had a digital camera since they were invented, and I've carried a laptop for e-mail and office work since I got my much-loved Tandy TRS-80 Model 100 in 1984. I need to also mention that I have a digital lockbox key for entering houses during my occasional forays into the real estate business.

So it was something of a mystery to me, and to everyone who knows me, that I resisted for so long the temptation to get a Treo, Palm's integrated smartphone that combines basic PDA software with a cell phone, a digital camera, a Web browser, and an e-mail client. A big part of the problem was timing, and another part was cost. I also have to admit to a certain amount of simple inertia.

The early Treos weren't all that good, so at about the time they came out I replaced my dead Palm V with a Sony Clie. That was still functioning well when it became time to upgrade to a camera-equipped cell phone, so I bought an LG 6000. When it was time to upgrade my aging Olympus C-2000 digital camera, I got an Olympus C-7000.

During most of that time, upgrading my cell phone to a Treo without changing service providers would have cost me nearly $700, so I didn't have much incentive to do it. And I was unwilling to jump ship, because I use the only provider with consistently good service in this area. Besides, I was waiting to see what the Windows Pocket PC-based Treo 700W would be like. And despite occasional bursts of jealousy when meeting up with someone sporting a Treo, I was being lazy about it

Then three things happened at about the same time. First, my cell phone account came due for the sort of major upgrade that brought the price of a Treo down to about $200. Second, many reviewers I know and admire soundly trounced the Treo 700W, because the Windows software complicated an otherwise simple-to-use device. And third, my local real estate board upgraded its lockbox system to one that allowed me to turn in my lockbox key and use a Treo instead.