Windows Phone Thoughts: Dell Asking PalmOne For WM Treo?

"Nothing is certain yet, but the rumors of PalmOne’s decision to make a Treo running Windows Mobile won’t die. The latest rumors have Dell pressing PalmOne to make a Treo with a Microsoft engine so that Dell can turn around and sell it to their enterprise users. With wireless PDA’s like Dell’s Axim largely a stagnant-or disappearing-market, Dell would like nothing more than to offer its customers the best smartphone on the market, without having to hassle with the FCC or waste time developing one on their own. It makes sense for PalmOne as well, a company that needs to start actively courting the enterprise market-or risk losing even more ground to RIM. Dell would be a great partner for PalmOne to use to get into the enterprise space. Most importantly, says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, is that this is what the market really wants: A device that looks and acts a lot like a Blackberry, but that runs the PocketPC/Windows Mobile engine."

We reported on some of these rumors a while back, but this one is more extensive. I have no idea if it's true or not, but it's certainly intriguing. The Blackberry has become a runaway success -- I see people with Blackberries everywhere in New York. What I'd love to have is a mobile PDA with the formfactor of a Treo, the always-on nature of a Blackberry, and the Pocket PC OS enabling PIM and 3rd-party applications, and it sounds like something similar is being targeted here.