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We were pretty sure that HTC was the manufacturer for the Treo Pro even before it was confirmed. Here's a little more inside baseball.

TreoProTricks has published the key sequence to enter the bootloader, which is the gateway into the bowels of the phone. When we talk about applying rom updates on an HTC device, the bootloader's where the action is. There we learn a few things:

1. The HTC codename for the Treo Pro is PANT100, presumably for "Panther." (The Treo 750 is "Cheetah.")
2. The Treo Pro is, in fact, a full-on HTC device with the Palm branding and customizations, as was the Treo 750.
3. If you can get to the bootloader, it's a huge step toward loading custom roms.

The bootloader is not a toy (he types as he shakes his finger). And you can't just load any rom onto your phone — there are a few security checkpoints in place. But once/if the folks at the various Treo hackery sites get up and running, we could see some very cool things in the Treo Pro's future.

Making the rounds on the Internets is a "sale" at Best Buy next week on the Treo 800w. And that's true, at least according to one site. But the even better news is that you can go snag one right now (and for the past several weeks, for that matter) for that same $199 price point, after rebates, contracts, blood tests, etc.

We're not looking a gift horse in the mouth. This is still $50 less than what you'll pay at either Palm's or Sprint's Web sites.

So If you're looking to re-up with Sprint and neither the HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro are doing it for you, swing by and give it a shot.

The folks at WM Power User are on hand in London right now for Palm's official launch of the Treo Pro across the pond.

Follow along right now as they liveblog the event.

Thanks to StarrWulfe for the tip!

Put your rumormonger hats on with us for a moment, although the big reveal of what we're thinking is already clear from the headline.

1. As noted in the NYT article we referenced earlier, Palm Exec John Rubenstein cancelled some Treos not too long ago.
2. The Treo Pro looks nothing like the Treo 800w
3. The Treo Pro has a battery that's nothing like batteries Palm has used in the past. In fact, it looks an awful lot like the battery on the HTC Mogul. See a good image of the Treo Pro Battery here, and the HTC Mogul Battery here. They're not identical (the leads are in different places), but they're the same basic shape, mAh, and even have the same indentations.
4. The Treo Pro sports the HTC Task Manager on the Today Screen.

Palm hasn't said who actually manufactures (the ODM) the Treo Pro, but the question we're aiming for here is who was primarily responsible for the "Thoughtful Design of the Treo Pro?" Could it be that the Treo that Rubenstein cancelled was the original Treo 850? If he did, how did Palm design the Treo Pro so quickly afterwards?

Our guess, if you haven't gathered yet: there was must have been some collaboration on design between Palm and HTC. There are still Palm touches aplenty here -- the Centro keyboard, Ringer Switch, and WiFi button prove that. On the other hand, we have an HTC-esque power button, battery, and let's be honest here: HTC's been able to design the innards in such a way as to make thin phones in a way that Palm just hasn't.

So we kinda sorta a wee-little-bit suspect that, hardware-wise, the Treo Pro is Palm on the outside, HTC on the inside.

Crazy? Crazy like a fox.

Update: Yep, HTC is indeed the ODM for the Treo Pro [via]. Sounds like another piece of confirming evidence about the design of the Treo Pro. That leaves only one question hanging out there -- what exactly did Palm order 5 million of from Compal>

Coinciding with the official announcement of the Treo Pro, The New York Times this morning published a piece on Palm CEO Ed Colligan and Executive Chairman John Rubinstein, who left Apple and was brought in to breathe life back into the once-floundering company.

Along with such (great) lines as “Everyone is trying to make an iPhone killer. We are trying to make a killer Palm product,” we get a quick look at Palm's strategy for the Treo Pro.

Writes Laura M. Holson:

Palm has begun to market its products differently at the behest of Mr. Colligan, who has a long history with Palm and its various antecedents and spinoffs. It is scrapping the use of numbers in product names, Mr. Keast said.

As has been apparent with the Centro, and which Holson acknowledges, this shift has been in place for some time now. While Palm has said from the get-go - OK, since this morning - the Treo Pro is a power user's device, and not nearly as consumer-oriented as the Centro. We haven't seen nearly the marketing push, at least not with the 800w, as Sprint put behind the Centro. And never mind that there's currently no U.S. carrier on board for the Treo Pro, and that it initially will be available unlocked for $549.

So it will be interesting to see the response - from Palm, the U.S. carriers and finally the customers - to what easily is the sexiest Treo in the lineup.

But Rubinstein admits there's still a long road ahead.

“One product isn’t going to make us successful,” he said. “It is a brick in the foundation. And each one has to be better than the last.”

Read Palm, Once a Leader, Seeks Path in Smartphone Jungle

Palm, Inc. has been having a decent week so far, hitting 2 million Centro sales and getting out that BT voice-dial patch.

On top of that JP Morgan has some interesting things to say regarding the Treo 800w:

Bad news: Sprint and Best Buy stores are woefully short

...nearly all of them complained of a lack of inventory. Four of ten Best Buys...in the NY tri-state area complained of zero inventory, and weekly deliveries of just 5 units... We heard similar complaints at Sprint stores, where inventory levels ranged from zero to just 5 units, typically.

Good news: Demand appears to be high for the device

The stores reported strong demand for the recently-introduced 800W...

...and weekly deliveries of just 5 units, which sell out nearly immediately.

So why the constraint? According to Palm, they were not expecting anymore supply problems for the Centro (like they had earlier) and it seems odd, though perhaps plausible that the 800w would.

Another angle would be that production is just not up to par yet and in addition newer devices will have to be re-flashed with a the new updated ROM (which would include BT voice-dialing). According to our esteemed forum member (and software wiz) Hannip, the new BT voice-dial patch was not something Palm whipped up overnight:

Wow, I just peeked inside the cab and this was no small feat by Palm. No way this was done in a few weeks. It's a major overhaul of the wav driver, bluetooth audio gateway and volume service. Of particular notice is a huge audio settings xml file in \Windows\AudioSettings.pm. It defines every aspect of audio on the device.

This lends credence to the idea that BT voice-dialing was always planned but just not ready for launch, as opposed to sheer oversight. Indeed if that is the case, it would make sense to constrain supply until it was ready, while still maintaining their soft launch with Sprint.

If we see increased supply and devices with updated ROMs in the next few weeks, that just might be reason.

Yet another slow night leaves us with these little gems courtesy of forum member Darth Pooh (who knew Pooh bear went to the Darkside?).

Evidently he met with his local store rep who had some promo materials from Palm directly and he managed to snag a couple of photos and then scanned them himself.

Nice work forum sleuths!

So what do these data sheets tells us that we don't already know? Not much more than we have already learned, but hey there are plenty of new glam shots, some cool shortcuts and you'll learn exactly what Sprint reps will tell you when they try to sell you this phone.

Although, we do learn

• "... it will ship with a standard and extended battery due to beta feedback"
• RevA enabled out of the box
• Qualcomm MSM-6800a chipset
• GPS is standalone and assisted (noyce)
• Talk time is "up to 4 hours" with 200 hrs standby
• 1150 mah battery (same as the Centro)

Check out our 800w GPS Closer look article for more info on that one.

BTW, don't believe the hype about extended delays of the release as we're still confident that this time next week, everyone who wants one (all 8 of you) will have received them, even by mail.

Download the full 12 page sales guide here (while it lasts)

A ways back we said the date for the much anticipated (well, for a few of us at least) Palm Treo 800w was July 22nd.

Then newer info popped up suggesting it got bumped to July 13th.

Looks like that latter date is turning out to be correct as what looks like to be a scanned inventory sheet for Sprint was posted at HowardForums. The sheet also confirms our scoop that the 800w will sport a button on top of the device to toggle WiFi on/off.

The launch also appears to be available a few days earlier Wed, July 9th for business partners (BP) of Sprint which is not that unusual (Edit: klmsu19 in the comments points out "BP" probably stands for BrightPoint, "a global leader in the distribution of wireless devices and the provisioning of customized logistic services to the wireless industry").

Start saving those bucks as full retail price will be $599.99 and we're expecting it to be $249.99 after contract and rebates.

Oh yeah and don't forget about that Treo 800w giveaway contest ;-) Remember, July 13th and we suppose July 9th are off-limits!

Thanks Commo for the tip!