Palm
i705

The Palm i705 was a PDA that included connectivity to Cingular’s Mobitex network. At launch it cost $450. It was the last of the Palm-branded devices that could connect to the Palm.net service which provided basic Internet access. Before it was launched it was leaked extensively. It was an important product for Palm at the time as it was battling intensive competition from products such as the soon-to-be-launched Handspring Treo, various BlackBerry devices made by Research In Motion (RIM) and Compaq iPAQ devices. The i705 was designed to primarily be sold to corporate customers and help Palm move away from the increasingly commoditised PDA market. The “To-do List” and “Memo Pad” buttons that had previously featured on Palm PDAs were replaced with “Email” and “Net connectivity” buttons. When it was announced, Palm's senior director of product management and planning, John Cook stated that the company needed to do “more than provide the handhelds, but also the provide the solutions around them".