Verizon Picks Up Palm Centro Smartphone

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.