Introduction

3 March 2005 was a significant day in that it marked the official introduction of the palmOne™ Treo 650™ smartphone into Malaysia.

ARP received an invitation to the launch, which was held at Le Meridien Hotel, in Kuala Lumpur, hosted by palmOne. As one of the newest members, I was lucky enough to be chosen to cover the proceedings.

The Company

Before we go any further, here's a brief history of the company.

Founded in 1992, Palm has been long regarded as the industry pioneer in handheld computing. The company changed hands from U.S. Robotics to 3Com before eventually establishing itself as an independent public-traded company in March 2002.

Through all this time, however, Palm never lost its solid reputation in the handheld device market.

In 2003, Palm became palmOne and PalmSource™: the former being the producer of handhelds and smartphones, the latter bringing consumers applications and software for said products.

The Launch

Upon arrival at 10:00 a.m. on the day of the launch, I was ushered to the media registration counter for the necessary. With that done, I was afforded the chance to revive myself at the lovely little lounge where light refreshments were being served.

A few Treo 650 smartphones were on display in the area but, being only display models, I didn't have the opportunity to examine it closely. Fortunately, a chance to actually test the functionality came later. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Display set up for viewing prior to presentation