In an effort to fight irrelevancy amongst college students (my words) Palm is giving Treo 700wx smartphones to college students participating in the Microsoft Student Partner program.
Students will use the Treo 700wx, Sprint’s first Windows Mobile-based Treo smartphone on the Sprint Power Vision Network, to promote the benefits of mobility and create greater awareness of the Palm Connected Campus, an initiative that supports mobile-computing environments where mobile computing connects students, faculty, IT, administrators and staff to each other, the campus network and personal information.
Right now there are only 114 campuses involved in the initiative, which is good because Palm only handed out 228 of the devices. So I guess you people will just have to learn to share.
Don’t get me wrong, I could have totally used a Treo when I was in college. Hell, I could’ve used any PDA or cell phone. However, with less than 300 units to go around, is Palm trying to get students that don’t get a free unit, to go out and buy a Treo? Because with a $499 price tag, I certainly couldn’t have afforded one in college (edit: I can’t afford one now! – Blake). What would be nice is if Palm and Sprint stepped up and reduced the price for the device and service for students. But what the hell do I know?