Rumors are flying fast and furious after Palm fans found mention of a new handset—the "Elan"—on various Web sites over the weekend. Could it be the mysterious new "C40" WebOS phone that Palm watchers have been tracking since last summer? Is "Elan" just another name for the existing Palm Pixi? Or are we simply chasing a phantom here?
PreCentral.com got a tip over the weekend from a purported AT&T IT staffer, who claims that the carrier (which has already announced that it will soon begin carrying a series of Palm phones, most likely the Pre Plus and the Pixi Plus) is set to being testing "a mystery device codenamed 'Elan.'"
Smoke became fire after PreCentral readers took to the Web and found mentions of an "Elan" on the sites of "several accessory manufacturers," which "since took that information down."
So, what could the "Elan" be? Well, maybe it has something to do with "C40," a mysterious ID number for an as-yet unannounced Palm handset discovered last August in Sprint's phone tracking system.
Next to nothing is known about the "C40," although that didn't stop the bloggers at PreCentral from speculating about the features of the new phone—if, indeed, that's what it is. Among the items on the wish list: a higher-resolution camera with auto-focus, a pumped up graphics chip, better battery life, a slot for microSD memory expansion, and even support for Sprint's upcoming 4G WiMax network.
By yesterday, though, some of the air had begun hissing out of the Elan balloon, as eagle-eyed PreCentral readers found a couple of sites listing the Palm Elan beneath a picture of the Pixi—so perhaps the Elan is little more than AT&T's re-branded version of last year's Pixi phone.
Still, despite the possibility that the Elan and "C40" might be red herrings, it's hard to believe that Palm isn't hard at work on a new WebOS phone. The original Pre came out last June, and a year-long production cycle is pretty typical in the smartphone world, so it stands to reason that Palm will have a major new handset for us sometime this summer. (And given the shaky state of Palm's financials, the company's future may well depend on it.)
So, what features do you think need to be in Palm's next WebOS phone? A bigger screen? Better keypad? Version 2.0 of WebOS? microSD? More apps in Palm's app catalog? Or is it simply a case of too little, too late?
