Can’t wait to get your giant hand on Palm’s tiny “ultra-mobile?” Turns out it will be arriving sooner than later — next Friday, in fact. Verizon (you know, the giant telecom that owns the media conglomerate that owns TechCrunch) announced today that it will be launching the strange new thing on November 2.
The 3.3-inch device runs $349 off-contract. On-contract, it’s $14.58 a month for two years. It will be available through the carrier’s stores o through Best Buy kiosks. The companies are also betting big on accessories, from companies including Kate Spade, Zagg, LifeActiv and some Verizon-branded products.
Makes sense, as the device is being positioned as somewhere between a smartphone and smartwatch, given its small size. It’s novel, for sure, the notion of what’s essentially a smaller, second phone. It’s also fairly retro, both from the standpoint of the startup licensing out the familiar name and the fact that it sports roughly the same size screen as the original iPhone.
I know I’m excited to try the thing out. The built quality is certainly there from my initial impressions, and you can’t really go wrong with a design that looks like nothing more than a shrunk down iPhone. Of course, the company has painted itself into a bit of a corner with a single carrier launch for a device that already includes a number of barriers to entry.
Of course, with the run that Steph’s been having lately, maybe they’ll pull it off, after all.
