Palm's Centro is a Smart Phone With a Great Price

Palm's Centro is a Smart Phone With a Great Price

The Palm Centro from Sprint announced today the exceptional price of only $99. This is great news for consumers who want a smart phone, but don't want to shell out mega-prices for one. Of course, like most phones, you will need to sign a 2-year contract to get the new device.

"Palm Centro has the power of a broadband smartphone at the price of a standard 12-key phone," said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. "People looking to have all their contacts and calendar at the touch of a button, plus YouTube streaming videos and the Internet can now get it in a small, cool design with the trademark Palm ease of use. If you're thinking about stepping up to a smartphone, the Palm Centro should be your choice."

Investors were pleased with the news. Shares of Palm (symbol PALM) rose nearly $1 or 6%. Palm has been known as a maker of great devices but most people were afraid to shell out the $300 or more for their devices. The $99 offer will probably breed a new demographic to buy their phones and may upgrade when they find how useful their technology can be. It will be probably marketed as a great alternative to the iPhone as it has a lot of the same functionality like watching Youtube Videos, easy text messaging, an easy to use email system, and high speed internet access via Sprints super fast EV-DO network (something that the iPhone lacks as it runs on the sluggish EDGE network when you are not in a WiFi hotspot)

The Palm Centro will hit stores in Mid-October... (Source: http://www.clevelandleader.com/)

Palm enters low-end phone market with Centro

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm Inc introduced its smallest smartphone on Thursday, making its first push into the low end of the mobile market in a bid to revive growth prospects and offer a cheaper alternative to Apple Inc's iPhone.

Hoping to entice consumers looking for a low-cost upgrade, Palm has priced the new "Centro," a smaller and lighter version of its Treo smartphone, to sell for about $100.

Both devices feature a full keyboard, touch screen, and the ability to read and send e-mail or manage documents and spreadsheets.

The Centro weighs only 4.2 ounces and is a bit bigger than a credit card. It will sell exclusively through Sprint Nextel Corp for the rest of the year in the United States.

Palm executives say the Centro is targeted at traditional mobile phone users who want a more powerful device at a moderate price. The Treo tends to cost about $300 and above, and competes with higher-priced, business-focused models like Research in Motion Ltd's BlackBerry... (Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKN2736844920070928)

The Centro

The Palm Centro is, briefly, a tiny Treo 755p. The specs inside are nearly unchanged and almost beside the point. This is an entry-level smartphone designed for first-time users. As Antoine said in our forums, the Centro is now what the Treo 680 was meant to be. Let's run down the specs, though, just to get them out of the way:

• Palm OS 5.4.9
• EVDO 3G high speed data
• Bluetooth Version 1.2
• 64MB available user storage plus a microSD clot
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• 3.5 hour talk time, 1150 mAh battery
• 4.22" (L) x 2.11" (W) x 0.73" (D);
• 4.2 oz

The talk time is a little short, but essentially these specs are nothing to write home about. Except those last two: the dimensions and the weight. The Centro is light. More importantly: the Centro feels awesome.

The Centro is due out on October 14th. It will be $99 with a 2-year contract and a mail-in rebate. Buying the phone outright is a hefty $399. I fully expect that it won't be long before the Centro is free after rebates.

Let's round out some of the other new features on the Centro before we move on. As I said, it's essentially a 755p on the inside, so we'll hit the differences. The Centro comes with Pocket Tunes Deluxe, the full version, out of the box. This is a great move. It also comes with the latest version of DocsToGo, version 10. Finally it has the necessary parts of Kinoma to stream YouTube Mobile videos, which should help with their target market quite a bit. There are other minor adjustments here and there, but little to nothing that a 755p user would notice... (Source: http://www.treocentral.com/content/Stories/1361-1.htm)