Palm Centro2 First Image!
First Non-Keyboard Centro2 Smartphone From Palm Offers Large 480x320 Touchscreen + Dedicated Music Playback Buttons in Slim & Lightweight Body
Thanks to a leaked advertisement for Bell Canada (image below) today may prove to be the single most exciting day of the month with news that a new Centro2 featuring the first keyboard-less smartphone from Palm is in the works!
As you can appreciate from the image above, the rather attractive Centro2 offers a huge touchscreen (480x320 or higher resolution) along with dedicated Play/Pause + Back/Forward music buttons at the top of the device. Under the screen is the 5Way navigation button along with the flat Call Answer/End (in green and red respectively) along with four new buttons that mysteriously do no correspond to either a traditional Palm OS or Windows Mobile smartphone…
The rather fun advertisement above with a stretched arm filled with handwritten notes does not provide us with any more clues as to what operating system this new Palm Centro2 may be running. Although some people have suggested that the Centro2 may be running Windows Mobile I think that it’s not likely as there is no WM logo in the above ad.
This leads me to conclude that we’re either witnessing the first NOVA OS device (unlikely at this early stage) or more likely an enhanced non-touchscreen version of the existing Palm OS. Either way, the fact is that I can hardly contain my excitement at seeing these images and the thought that very soon Palm will have an even more effective smartphone to compete agains the iPhone…
Although there is no additional information about this Centro2 for now, the device appears to be wider than the existing Palm Centro (size comparison below) something which would suggest that the Centro2 will benefit from a huge touchscreen that may provide a +200% larger footprint than the existing Centro.
Additionally, it appears that the Centro2 will be available in five colors (Black, Red, Pink, Yellow and Blue) the moment that it starts shipping. There is no ETA whatsoever at this stage but rumours are floating that Palm may once again use the forthcoming Digital Life show in NYC in September to make an official announcement.
Among others I hope that news of this forthcoming Centro2 will help to demonstrate that Palm is clearly not sitting still but instead aggressively continuing to enhance its position in the consumer smartphone market against the likes of Apple’s iPhone. As with the original Centro I also expect the Centro2 to be very competitively priced and thus just as successful – particularly now that it has a huge touchscreen.
UPDATE: I guess that my excitement was unfortunately short lived… News is that this entire ad is quite fake and the work of a rather talented Korean student for his marketing class… Having said this, if my sources are correct we should still all have news of a possible new Palm device coming out in the next few weeks…
MobileHeist Preview
Separately, I also wanted to give you a brief preview of a huge Treo Software and Centro Software promotion that we’ve organized along with a selection of the very best Palm OS software devcelopers.
We’re offering 25 of the best-selling Palm applications for only $9.95 each!!! This special promotion provides an average discount of 42% with some discounts as high as 67% and will run for one full week, starting this Monday, August 11 and ending at midnight PST on Sunday, August 17.
Click here to see the MobileHeist Offers for Centro Smartphones
Click here to see the MobileHeist Offers for Treo Smartphones
Centronauts are always full of surprises…
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Comments
I don't think I want to relearn graffiti at this point and on-screen keyboards suck, so I'll hold out for something better...
This is not real.
It is a project a student did for a marketing class back in Novemver of 2007!
Here is the original picture that the student did in Deviantart. Give credit to the student:
http://koreansensation.deviantart.com/art/Palm-Centro-Magazine-Ad-70375854
Korean - LOL I was indeed fooled!
Shame because I would actually really have liked to see a touchscreen-only smartphone like this come out from Palm...
At the same time, my sources continue to indicate that we should expect a new device announcement from Palm very shortly but I guess that it will not be the Centro2...
Cheers, A
bummer! i was already screaming with joy and telling my husband we could now upgrade our treo 680's to a touchphone treo... :-(
well, i hope the new palm phone will have palm OS and be a keyboard-less one for a change. i have a samsung F480 though and sending messages thru treo still is much faster...
Good thing it's fake. I was afraid we were all going to have to start organizing our lives with YouTube. Which is what the ad seems to imply. Or do we just skip all of our activities and watch YouTube, thus streamlining our lives so we don't have to write all of that stuff down?
Fake? Well then maybe Palm should considering finding this student and hiring him/her. This student obviously has the knack for design. I think these things would fly off the shelves. Manufacturing would be kept busy for some time to come.
Glad it's fake. Things just wouldn't be the same without a physical keyboard.
ya.. the form factor is why I stay with Palm. If they abandon the keyboard i will finally abandon them :)
This had to be a fake it would surely be the end of the centro. The centro could never compete against the iphone. If the centro didn't have a keyboard I would have an iphone.
When will people stop jumping on every possible photoshop jpeg on the net. Its bad enough iphone blogoshpere does the same thing 24/7, It does not mean Palm fans should jump on the bandwagon.
"Close Sources"? HMMM, who are these sources? you mean the non name blogger on the net living in his moms basement trying to get his 15 sec of fame by coming up with hearsay and gossip. C'mon were better than this.
What is the big deal with a physical keyboard. I transitioned to a Iphone keyboard. I will admit it took time to get used too. 10 minutes. I am blown out of my the Iphone. So I lost some features, I can live with that; at the end I gained twice the productivity and I got full internet acces. I dont even need my laptop anymore. So I am selling a treo 680 and a laptop 17 inch. I wish palm inc. improve their technology and products.
dude you have a 680, so maybe thats why? try a 800 or the new treo pro. The Iphone is for kids, and girls.
The whole point of buying a Centro is to get the QWERTY keyboard. A big screen is nice, but I'd rather have the keys.
1/21/09
I can go with a keyboardless Centro 2 if it has infra, sync cable and desktop. I am a 8 yr. palm user Tungstein E2, all handsprings' maybe this is more reallistic for me than Palm Pre. I'm still leaning to Palm Pre cost is the factor and compatibility. I am still following dailey Palm products on palminfocenter.com.
Keepup
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