Treo 700p fix: Palm throws me a few crumbs of hope...

Earlier today, I exchanged some emails with Paul Loeffler, Palm's VP of Public Relations.
Paul is a very decent guy, who has the lousy job of acting as buffer between aggressive writers/consumers (i.e. me), and Palm Execs who are reticent about sharing important facts with their customers.

I had written to Paul, asking why Palm had still failed to acknowledge (let alone address) the growing chorus of anger over the Treo 700p's native bugs, lags and loops. As usual, I pointed out that this behavior was anomolous for past and present support of Treo issues (in comparison with support for the Treos 600, 650, 680 & 750).

I challenged Paul to have Palm, Inc. state, once and for all, one of the following:

1) Palm acknowledges that the 700p is currently damaged goods; and, outlines a remedy plan & timeline

2) Palm acknowledges that the 700p is currently damaged goods, with limited remedy options; due to faulty hardware/software choices and design. A remedy plan & timeline is released, to address those issues that can be fixed

3) Palm acknowledges that the 700p is currently damaged goods; and, cannot be fixed, due to faulty hardware/software choices and design.
Instead of a remedy plan, Palm releases the ship date of its next Treo...hoping that the 700p owners will just trade up

I also asked him to confirm or deny that Sprint has the 700p scheduled for EOL (End Of Life) as of May, 2007. Normally, I don't publicize rumors; but, in this case, I had two personal sources in Sprint verify that they had seen internal documents verifying the EOL...and, I shared that information with Paul.
If Palm, Inc. were to short-sheet the device (in addition to its atypical lack of support), then that would paint a very damning picture of Palm's intentions to write off the 700p (and those who paid for them), and move on to greener pastures.

What follows is Paul's reply, verbatim. I will let it speak for itself (please post your comments to this thread in the Forum):

"Hi PJ,

I am in a little bit of a bind here…we can’t comment on a rumored document from a carrier and we do not publicly share our product roadmap.

But, I do appreciate your position and frustration regarding the 700p. Let me confirm that we are continuing with our plans to issue a maintenance release for the 700p on Sprint and Verizon Wireless networks. The maintenance release will address most of the issues raised, but not all, and will be available as soon as it is completed by Palm and certified by the carriers. The timing on availability for the maintenance release looks like April. As soon as we have a firm date, we will post it to the Palm website, and I will personally let you know.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best regards,

Paul Loeffler
Manager, Public Relations"