Live From DigitalLife…it’s the Palm Centro smartphone…

   

We haven’t mobloged yet to the official Palm blog yet, so we thought it would be a great to do at DigitalLife, where we just announced the Palm Centro smartphone. We are actually using a Centro right now (a ruby red one as a matter of fact), and have included a few highlights about the phone as well as a picture from the press conference below.

Features of the Palm Centro include:
-New compact design, Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date
-$99.99 price point (after discounts and promotions)on Sprint’s Mobile Broadband Network (yes, it’s EvDO)
-Voice, text, IM, email, web, a full-color touch screen and full keyboard
-Available in two colors - ruby red and onyx black.

For those of you not to join the press conference, you can check out a playback of the webcast, available by 4 p.m. EST at: http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=42256.

We’ll be adding more pictures from DigitalLife throughout the day and talking more about Centro throughout the next couple weeks before availability (mid-October).

Updated:

Treocentral has a nice in-depth review and also a hands-on video. Check it out.

-Rob Katcher and Stephanie Richardson

-The Palm Lounge...not your ordinary tradeshow booth

-Me (Rob Katcher) showing off a Centro at the Palm Lounge

-Ed Colligan with The Buried Life (4 guys who created a list of a 100 things they want to do before they die). Check out their site: http://theburiedlife.com/.

Comments

[Diana de Avila]

I am so excited to see the launch of the Centro. It's going to be such a great product for the mainstream (and right on the heels of the iPhone). I think it's going to be a huge hit. It looks like it's going to rock!!!

[momo]

No new palm OS phone for GSM users
- Still no wifi
- Let's not talk about gps or other advanced functions,

[Mike Huffman]

The Centro looks great, but what is this with the old Palm 5.4.9. OS? I have had quite enough of it with my treo 700P (the "P" stands for "Poor")

Bluetooth is erratic even after the firmware upgrade, and the OS crashes rather consistently. When are you moving to the new Linux-based OS? I will wait until them for another Palm device.

[rpa]

After checking with my 15 year old:
1. Too clunky.
2. Palm O/S stinks.
3. You can get a Samsung Blackjack for free with a plan so why pay $99?

I'd say Palm was about 2 years too late with this one. The good news is we at least seeing NEW PRODUCTS coming from Palm so maybe they will hit a home run sooner or later. Don't think the Centro/Treo 500v will be one of their home runs though.

Many bloggers are asking for a T|X phone; I'd be happy with a small flip phone like the Moto 1200 Ming running Palm (Treo 270 anyone?). Waiting, waiting, waiting....

[Jagadeesh Venugopal]

I hope at some point that Palm/Sprint releases a smartphone for prepaid users. I don't have much use for a mobile phone as I am connected on email virtually 24 hours a day but would love a PDA with phone capabilities for the occasional times I use it.

Unfortunately regular PDA development has all but stopped in favor of smartphones.

[Jason Stepp]

Its about time that there is a great phone like this for people who cant afford paying such a high price for the IPhone. I am a Sprint/Nextel customer and definitely plan on buying this phone! Great Job Palm!

[Alex]

Not bad, it's a touch-screen Palm with a Palm OS.. whilst it is dated.. the fact that it is being aimed to be sold at a more affordable price and is lighter than my current 650, certainly will sell me towards the phone, at least for another year, hopefully by then we will have the new OS and a more groundbreaking smartphone.

Here is to hoping that I can get my hands on one in either Asia or Europe in the new year.

[Dave]

Ditto comments about Verizon. I was planning on adding a line until I found out about Centro. I'd be willing to wait 90 days if I knew for sure that it'd be available on Verizon.

[Luigi D. Sandon]

No wi-fi, old Bluetooth support (1.2, not 2.x!), ok, for this low-end device could be acceptable - but where's a new high-end Treo with all the features competitors have???

[peng1can]

Hey, does this model include the audio bug that was in the 755p and backported to the 700p? I really enjoy being able to miss messages because alarms are silenced and having my calls get transferred when random DTMF tones are emitted from my phone. It's also great fun to explain why the person on the other end of the call is hearing touch tones when an alert pops up. If this new Centro doesn't include that bug, I think I'll have to stick to my 755p. Life just wouldn't be as fun without it.

(Yes, that's an obnoxious way of asking when the biggest and most glaring bug ever included in a Palm device is going to be fixed!)

Nice product! I'll get one as soon as it reaches Chile

I was happy with Treo 180 :D.... Now, at last, a good treo with a nice price.

[HushPe]

Look like Palm is slowly getting there and listening to it's customers.

Another vote for a TX Phone, surely we're not too far off now.

[ColonelKernel]

When you guys gonna add the Centro to mobile.palm.com?

[dustin]

another polished up turd from palm, i went from the 755p to the blackberry 8830, couldnt be happier. i've had every palm treo since the 180, including the windows based ones, i see little difference function wise between the 700p and the centro. palm, wake me up when you have a real update for me

[Heiko]

Good bye, Palm. Just switched to a WM Smartphone. Was a Palm fan for more than five years, but constant lack of innovation made me finally leave. I will miss some beloved applications but it was necessary. I really got tired of Franken Garnet and its stability issues. I can't afford a phone which occasionally freezes while doing basic operations like answering a call or checking mail.

[Doug]

My old PDA (Tungsten E2) just died and I'm finally looking to get something new from Palm. I want wi-fi, not some overpriced data plan. I want a big screen. Phones are nice, but as Heiko just mentioned above, I don't want Fatal Exceptions while talking on my phone. I belive that phones are best to use as phones and PDAs are best to use as PDAs.

Palm seems to have absolutely no interest in my business as a customer. I'll probably be compelled to spend several hundred dollars on a TX, two-year-old technology with a four-year-old operating system. I'd like a new gadget without feeling ripped off. Or maybe I'll just do without.

[Deno]

Is it just me, or is everybody excited about Palm's latest goings on? The Centro... Maybe it'll work until an update is available, and that Palmthing website, why devote resources to such fivolity when we can't rely on our devices for such simple things as making calls without a reset.

Seemed like a good idea at the time, a Treo 700p with a $15 data plan from Sprint, but you get what you pay for so I'll be looking at the BB more closely this weekend.

Thanks Palm...

[epilasyon]

thank you

[Bye Palm!!!]

Bye palm!! After 5 long years, epocrates (medical software) is finally going to the Blackberry!!!

So after 5 long years where the ONLY major innovation is the loss of the antenna... 5 long years of the SAME OS (along with bloatware that you cant delete)... 5 LONG years of turning a deaf ear to the customers...

...I can FINALLY keep up with 2007 and get a blackberry.

[michelle]

i have the new palm centro and i cant figure out how to delete pictures and call history can anyone help?

[Dan]

Verizon. Verizon. Maybe if we repeat it a few more times the point will get through.

I would buy two Centros right now, a black one for me, a red one for the wife, if it were available on Verizon.

Ditto on the re-up for two more years even.

Hasn't it been 90 days yet?

[sweet!]

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/b26f0a1787a5fa5ecb7995e4fa2a22ea.htm

this clearly says, posted Feb 4th

"Among the company's new products, Coster said, will be a version of the Centro with phone service from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. An exclusive deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. will expire soon, he wrote."

[Eli Moger]

I agree with all of those who would like the Centro on Verizon. I would buy one right away. I have a friend on Sprint who has it and loves it, and I know that it is exactly what I'm looking for. PLEASE PLEASE put it on Verizon!!

[CRB]

Verizon Verizon Verizon!!!!

......umm Verizon? Please.