Palm Centro Smartphone Coming To Sprint
UPDATE August 26: See the latest Palm Centro Official Image
Just a week ago the image below was still purported to be that of a next-generation Treo 800p but we now discover via an official and welcome Palm pre-annoucement that this device is actually the Palm Centro from Sprint…
The what!? Yes, although Sprint has not yet released an official name it appears that this latest smartphone will not have the “Treo” denomination but instead will be the first of a new category of devices targeted at “a younger demographic, new to the smartphone space” according to the company. From a branding perspective I personally feel that it would be a monumental mistake for Palm to introduce yet another name instead of building on the established Treo franchise – there’s actually no reason why they could not simply call it the Treo Centro.
Sprint gave a sneak peak of the new Palm Centro – the smallest Palm OS smartphone to date – yesterday at a Tech Summit in Reston, Virginia, to Sprint’s financial audience as well as a small number of press and market analysts. Unfortunately neither Palm nor Sprint have released pictures and more details and specifications about the Centro are still slim for the moment.
To date we know that the Palm Centro will run on Sprint’s EVDO network and although the form factor is much smaller than existing Treo smartphones the Centro’s new design features a full keyboard (albeit extremely tiny) and square touch screen (again much smaller than existing Treo models) as previously reported.
It is expected to have similar hardware specifications (for example keeping the existing HotSync connector to work with most existing Treo accessories although the smaller form-factor will require new Treo cases) and software features as the latest Treo 755p (running Palm OS Garnet) and Sprint will have a 90 day exclusive. Additionally, unofficial reports point out that the Palm Centro may become available for as little as $99 (with a contract) – an incredible price.
However, Palm pointed out that “this is not the full story on the Palm Centro smartphone device. There is a bigger story and we would love to brief you on the specifics closer to the actual launch timing.” There is no expected availability information at this time but an educated guess is that it will be released this fall with a possible official Palm annoucement at the end of September. I can’t wait to find out more…
Treonauts always uncover the latest news… 
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Tracked on Aug 17, 2007 2:45:43 PM
Comments
If it's not coming out as a Treo at least we won't have to give it any further thought - however, being a Treo fan I agree with you that they should build on what they've got instead of openning a new line. I disagree with your idea of it coming out as a Treo Centro because personally, I wouldn't want that thing associated with a Treo as it may give Treo a bad name.
There is no greater loss than a missed opportunity! This may end up becoming Palm's Motto.
On another thought, I love Treonauts - what a great site. Keep up the excellent work!
Any bets this is feature wise exactly the same as the 650/680? Palm seems to have forgotten how to innovate and I'd be very surprised if we saw anything new in this Centro except for the form factor.
Ick ... let's just hope it is better in function that it is from those photos. I'm not sure I'll even pick one up to look at it. The bar is being set pretty low if that's the best Palm can do.
No more new phones with the same OS!!!!!!!! What is wrong with Palm? every other new phone has innovated their operating system. Even Microsoft has the new Windows Mobile 6. Why is Palm so busy making new phones that run an ancient OS? I would take a treo 755p with a linux OS all day over some brand new phone that still runs garnet. They are completely dropping the ball here.
At least Palm is keeping with the idea of new form factors. Unfortunately for some reason small and ugly seem to be the new thing for attracting customers these days. Many Treo users will balk at it, but since Palm isn't calling it a Treo we shouldn't worry too much. This leaves me to wonder what else they have coming down the pipes that we haven't seen yet.
been a big fan of palm for years, but I'm getting really close to giving up on them... instead of innovating the smartphone market as they did with the first treos, they continue to go low end. Seems to me they would make more money selling expensive, feature-rich smartphones than trying to get more models that are free with a new plan (consider how much money people are shelling out for the stupid iphone). C'mon Palm wake the hell up and give us something new, high end and innovative! I'm getting tired of defending you morons.
Similarly I've been a palm fan for many years but it looks like at the end of the year I'm going to put my Treo 650 into retirement. The Nokia N95 has a 5MP camera, wifi properly functional bluetooth, GPS and now an up to date and huge repository of 3rd party applications in a smaller and nicer format than Palm can offer. I'll be sorry not to be using a Palm product because they've been so stable and reliable over the years but it seems Palm can't get beyond a 3 year old feature set.
I loved my Treo 650 when it first came out. I have been a Palm user since the days before wireless. With some regret, I recently abandoned the Palm products. After my Treo 650 stopped working, I purchased an Iphone. The Iphone is missing a couple of smart phone features (e.g., primitive Contacts for Iphone, synching is not working with Windows machines etc), but the Iphone is so far ahead in all other ways.
Palm appears to be in its last days. I don't think anyone will regret moving to the Iphone.
Why a new brand "Centro"? Because young people (the target demographic) don't care to buy a Treo. That's a business phone which people in suits buy.
"Palm Treo Centro". Too wordy. Plus they'll need a model number at the end, assuming they'll have more than one model at some point.
Hot tip: register "centronauts.com".
The Wrong-way Corrigans at Palm have done it again. they need:
- An OS that supports Flash and Java, fully
- A 640-pixel-wide screen
- Bug-free OS and mail apps
- longer life.
THAT's an iPhone killer.
Smaller, uglier, crippled devices and fake laptops aint it, guys.
They're doing it right. Never dilute a strong brand name with lower-end products. Treo for high-end, Centro for low-end. Think Lexus, Toyota and Scion from Toyota.
I too have been a Palm device user for years (IBM WorkPad, IIxe, Clie, Treo 300 (x3), and 680. I was happy to get a "deal" on the 680 to upgrade from my Treo 300. I've got so much invested in software that something else doesn't really enter into the picture... until now. If something doesn't improve with the feature set soon, I just might have dump my Treo platform and go an Apple Developer's iPhone with big price tag and all.
I get pictures from a website and I download it and save it to my phone but if I want to send or beam it to a friends phone the picture is lock so, How do I unlock my pictures on my phone?
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