Centro now available on Verizon Wireless

      

Those of you awaiting the Palm Centro smartphone on Verizon Wireless, wait no more! It's now available in cobalt blue for $99.99 (with rebate and 2-year contract) and running on Verizon Wireless's 3G EvDO network. And of course you'll find popular features that current Centro users value most, including:

• Phone that combines voice, text and email with a color touch screen and full keyboard.*
• Web browsing for quick access to sites like Yelp to get restaurant reviews, Google Maps for directions to meet up with friends, etc.
• Calendar and Contacts to keep things organized.
• Built-in camera to capture and share pictures and videos.

Uber affordable:

Centro is the first Palm product to offer Verizon Wireless' new Email and Web for Smartphone plan at $29.99 a month, making it the lowest cost data plan ever for a Palm device on Verizon Wireless. And it's currently the only touch screen smartphone to be available on the top three U.S. carriers for under 100 bucks (with a rebate and 2-year contract).

Tres Popular:

As of March 2008, more than one million Centros have been sold, so it's no surprise that PC World ranked it as one of the best 100 products of 2008. One of the biggest reasons for Centro's success is that it's appealing to the large population of people who previously owned a traditional mobile phone. Below is a video of four music artists who recently made the jump, talking about how they use their Centro smartphone to stay connected while traveling on tours.

Rob K. - Senior Product Manager, Consumer Smartphones

Music artists:

• Jonathan Clay
• Megan Hickey of The Last Town Chorus
• John West
• Alexa Wilkinson

*Within wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost.

Comments

[Mike]

About darn time!

[Richly N. Chheuy]

I've used Palm products since 2004 (I bought a Tungsten T3 before I entered into my first year of college). I bought a Treo 700p early last year, had problems with it, and eventually moved away from Palm with an iPhone. Although, I have to say, I really, really like the Centro. I think Palm OS is archaic, but I think it's far more usable as a Phone OS than Windows Mobile (and I had quite a few third-party apps I liked a lot). I ended up buying an AT&T Centro as a grad gift. And if the Centro came out earlier on Verizon's network (before I switched), I wouldn't considered a Centro.

Darn, just too late. As usual Verizon.

http://ecommerce.mediachase.com

[Tony Cheung]

It's certainly nice to see Centro again being offered for USD99 for Verizon. If Palm can add wifi for a Centro-like device at the same price, that'll be another hit.

Palm should really work with more carriers in more countries to bring this USD99 price points to more places!

[Ryanna]

I like the blue. Can we get it on Sprint? The red and the pink on sprint are just a little too girly for me and black is boring. Blue is a nice happy medium :*).

[Dee]

Why in the world would palm put out a phone of this quality and not have voice activated dialing? (with or without a bluetooth device) I understand that for another $30 I can PURCHASE software that makes this available to me. This is the deal breaker. I can buy a blackberry pearl at the same purchase price that has this feature, a "California necessity", included AT NO EXTRA COST.
I have never been so disappointed. I have been a loyal palm pilot user for several years and will no longer use that system, unless this feature is added at no extra cost in the next 3 months, when it is time for me to purchase a new phone.

[Mary Ibanez]

Finally it's here. I've been trying to wait pateintly, but it's been tough. Would be nice if the rebate wasn't such a pain to get it for the true 99 dollars that you say it is =).

[Richard]

Good to see Palm finally having some good news for a change. I have to admit that I was scared the company would be under water very quickly. Keep up your recent good work and you'll be back on top, which is exactly what your shareholders and users want.

[Jake]

I have come to some sad realisations seeing friends at school with Centros.

1. They do not want to beam games
2. They do not want your business card
3. They do not know what you mean by beaming
4. They do not know what you mean by palm
5. They think they have an offbrand Blackberry.

:'(
I love my Clie.

[Very sad customer]

I am very disappointed with the color choice for Verizon. I have been waiting what seems forever for Verizon to offer a Palm device that appeals to women-this is not the case. The only color available is Manley blue. They really should do some market research!

[Bob K]

I just picked up a Palm Centro to use with my Verizon service. with the addition of a 'real' mail client and an instant messaging client, the Centro became the most useful phone I've ever had. I use Agendus Mail to POP my regular email account and I use IM+ for realtime messaging with AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Jabber and ICQ.

I tried using the Mundu Instant Messager which claims to work on the Centro --but while it installs without error, any attempt to use it brings an error saying the software can't be enabled on the device. Mundu works great on a friend's Treo, so it must be something with the Centro they need to work out.

The Centro is a great smartphone and I'm glad I decided on it.

[sad customer]

I agree, I want to buy one of these centro phones but verizon only offers blue and so I was going to wait for other colors to be offered before I buy one but I was disappointed and i will buy another kind of phone if another color is not offered

When is Palm going to come out with Blue tooth voice dialing? I would pay for the ap if the phone could use it.....

[Sylvie]

Any idea has to when it will be offered in Canada? It certainly sounds like a great product.

Cheers for the North

[Kris]

When will Verizon be able to offer another color besides navy blue (straight laced for business but I think it's incredibly boring). Anyone have info on other color offerings?

[Meloni Renae]

I am very frustrated with my new Centro. My calendar does not have color options. I mean NO color options, only grayscale. The categories don't even offer a color choice. What has happened here?

[Paul]

I wish palm would make available a "phone" with no qwerty keyboard. (like the new tx handheld) I can't afford both a phone and a handheld and it would be real competition to the iphone. and tons better.

Will verizon be coming out with any other colors?? The blue is just so....blah

[Elaine]

i really want to know about the color options if there are going to be any!!!!

[Randy]

I agree with the comment about a version with no Qwerty keyboard.

I just upgraded from my faithful PalmIIIxe after almost 10 years.

If it was a choice between the Palm and the bloody Yuppie Toy (i.e. cell phone) my family wants me to carry, the Palm won every time.

Now with cel coming up for renewal and the IIIxe getting slightly forgetful in it's old age, the Centro looked like the best of the bunch (or at least the only one currently offered by Verizon, they only offer the Treo running the "W" stuff).

Overall I like it and it will be a good replacement. Cuts down the number of things to carry, remember to take with me, and to charge. (Palm, Cell, and occasional MP3 player that I will now have with me at all times). USB synch makes my life easer as serial ports are getting hard to come by and USB-Serial convertors are flaky at best.

However, my satisfaction is only after downloading MobilWrite to put Grafitti on it like a proper palm. The keyboard is usless and a waste of space in my opinon. So after about a week, my wish list for it's replacement are:

Grafitti as standard software.

A more solid sylus (aka as came with the IIIxe)

Lose the keyboard and pull the buttons down to replace it, expanding the screen accordingly.

I would even love it in a Palm III form factor. Including the flip up lid. (for protection only, not to make it a flip phone)

As I've been saying for years in discussing this with folks, I want a Palm that happens to take phone calls. I don't want a pocket computer, I want an electronic Dayrunner.

As for comments about the Palm OS looking "dated" and "archaic", a lot us like stuff that works and see no reason to change to stay trendy. Change for the sake of change is a luxury for those with money and too much time on their hands to play with new toys. The Palm OS works, is stable, and doesn't need trival changes in format to stay "hip".

And for the enternal Windows Mobile question: Why in the heck would I WANT my phone to do that? ;-)