"The Pre will have to be one killer device to make inroads, but luckily for Palm it's not too late and we're still early in the days of the smartphone revolution. I think Palm has a fighting chance," Dyer added.

Mike Akamine, Palm's senior product manager for the Treo Pro, disagreed that the Pro was shipping late to Sprint and said he had not seen Palm's financial statement issued Tuesday mentioning that point. "We had it folded into the February time frame and in the end, high quality is what makes sense," he said.

He claimed that the Treo Pro "is meeting [sales] expectations" as an unlocked product sold to customers who want to use it overseas without facing roaming charges. Akamine also said the Treo Pro targets "very different customers" from the Pre. The Treo Pro, based on Windows Mobile Professional 6.1, will continue to draw from customers with Microsoft-based applications and device management.

In addition to the sizable difference in price from the unlocked version, the Treo Pro from Sprint will have Internet Explorer Mobile 6 for the first time as its browser, giving users options for mobile or desktop-like browsing, Akamine said. That version also supports the Flash video player.

The Treo Pro also comes with an on-off switch for Wi-Fi access to save on battery power and a removable battery that can support five hours of talk time, Akamine said. GPS is also supported as well as Bluetooth.