Verizon Picks Up Palm Centro Smartphone

June 12, 2008 By Geoff Duncan

Verizon Wireless is going to start selling the low-cost Palm Centro smartphone - and Palm is predicting they will sell 2 million Centros.

The fortunes of famed PDA maker Palm have been lagging lately, what with the general decline of the PDA market and the industry’s rather dumbfounded response to the propose (and quickly terminated) Foleo PDA compantion notebook. One bright spot in Palm’s universe has been its low-cost Palm Centro smartphone, listing for $99 and giving mobile users a taste of the touchscreen-enabled smartphone lifestyle without the sting of a typical smartphone price. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription required) the Centro will be going on sale at Verizon Wireless beginning June 13.

The Centro’s pending availability via Verizon Wireless has been confirmed by sources at Palm. Via Verizon Wireless, the Centro will retain a price tag as low as $99 with a qualifying two-year service commitment.

Palm senior VP of marketing Brodie Keast told Reuters the company expects sales of Centro phones to top 2 million units. As of the end of March, the Centro had already sold 1 million units.

The Palm Centro offers a 320 by 320 touchscreen display and runs Palm OS 5.4.9; it has 64 MB of user memory with additional microSD storage, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth wireless networking, and a selection of email, synchronization, document readers, and an integrated Web browser.

Showing 4 comments

WhatName at 2:29pm 12th June 2008 So will they make us pay a monthly fee to use the camera or Bluetooth like they did with the GPS on the Blackberry? Aren't those monthly service fees to use the features your phone already has great!? I wouldn't even come near this thing.
A Nonymous at 2:13pm 12th June 2008 It's a pretty sweet phone for the price, but it's still very weak in terms of what it's offering. I guess it's going to work if you're a die-hard Verizon fan, but I agree with Larry on this one: the new iPhone is only 200 dollars, has 3g access and really is just the coolest new gadget out there right now.

Sorry, Palm, you're missing the bus.

Again.
Larry at 9:36am 12th June 2008 I tried the Centro and it did perform well, but since I like to text message a lot, it took me a while to get used to the Centro's style. I preferred my Blackberry and went back to that. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Verizon sell 2mm units as forcasted, Unless people flock to the iPhone for only $100.00 more at $199.99
James at 9:33am 12th June 2008 The Centro has not been receiving favorable reviews from what I gather. $99 is still a pretty good deal though. Would prefer a Blackberry.