Palm Centro Archives - Page 2 of 3

Verizon Palm Centro Confirmed

April 21, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

There were certainly rumors about the Palm Centro being released on the Verizon Wireless network, but photos appearing this morning confirm the Centro is definitely headed for
Verizon.

Verizon Palm Centro

Back of Verizon branded Palm Centro

There has yet to be a formal announcement from either Palm or Verizon as to the date. Expect pricing to fall in line with previous Centro pricing leaving the Verizon Palm Centro
under the magic $100 mark with a 2-year contract. Specifications should also be in line with previously shipping models from Sprint. Verizon seems to have adopted a more colorful stance with the recent release of the white HTC Touch and now the blue Centro.

You can discuss the Verizon Palm Centro in our Centro forums.

Source: EngadgetMobile Photo credit: EngadgetMobile

Palm Contest Asks For Your Favorite Pickup Lines

April 7, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

Palm and AT&T are running a contest asking for the worst, funniest and best pick-up lines you’ve heard. To enter is free and you’ll have a chance to win an assortment of prizes
from a Royal Caribbean cruise to a VIP party in Las Vegas with you and five of your friends. In addition, by entering you’ll automatically be entered in a daily drawing to win a free Palm Centro. Enter today by visiting www.palmpickup.com.

Win a free Palm Centro

The Palm Pickup contest runs from April 5th through May 17th. To enter, visit www.palmpickup.com where you can submit your line, vote and post comments on other pickup lines. You’ll also have the option to receive a weekly text, about the top picks of the week, ensuring your "game" at the next party.

Enter today at www.palmpickup.com. Best of luck and hopefully we’ll see one of our readers win the grand prize.

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: contest, palm pickup

Palm Sells One Millionth Centro

April 1, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

Palm yesterday announced the company has sold its one millionth Centro. With it’s mass appeal and even more appealing price point of $99, the
Treo makers value priced smartphone has become a hit among young adults, women and first-time smartphone buyers.

Palm has sold its one millonth Centro

Click to enlarge.

"The Palm Centro is flying off the shelves because users who want to step up to a smartphone see it as the perfect first choice," said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of marketing for Palm, Inc. "It has everything a person needs to stay organized and connected with everyone who is important to them. We’re very excited about the Centro’s near-instant popularity in the U.S. and think it’s going to be a huge hit as it continues to make its way across the globe."

"Smartphones are certainly not new to business professionals; however, now more than ever we are seeing consumers migrate toward these types of devices as form factors have become more appealing and price points are now competing with traditional mobile phones," said Ryan Reith, senior research analyst with IDC. "Palm’s Centro plays right into the hands of the consumer looking for a more robust experience on their mobile phone. We definitely expect to see this trend continue worldwide."

Increasingly, consumers are making the shift from traditional mobile phones to smartphones, motivated by the desire to do more with their phones and the arrival of lower-cost devices. Smartphones accounted for 11 percent of all mobile phone sales in 2007 in the United States, and this is expected to increase to 35 percent by 2011. A recent Palm survey of Centro customers highlighted this trend, indicating that 70 percent are first-time smartphone users. When compared to other Palm smartphones, Centro also is reaching almost double the number of women, more than double the number of customers under age 35, and nearly three times as many customers with a household income of less than $75,000.

Palm also announced the official release of the Palm Centro on AT&T Wireless in obisidian black. Palm is now shipping Centro in 10 countries worldwide, including Hong Kong, Singapore, India, the UK, Germany, Spain, Ireland, France and Italy, and its already-rapid momentum is set to grow as Palm debuts the product in additional countries around the globe.

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: one millionth, palm centro

Black Centros Showing Up In AT&T Stores

March 30, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

Those waiting for the more buttoned-up version of AT&T’s Palm Centro will be happy to know they are showing up
in AT&T retail stores.

Black Centro’s showing up at AT&T retail stores

Click to enlarge.

Outside of the more reserved Obsidian Black color, the specifications for the Centro remain unchanged. Pricing remains the same at $99.99 after rebates with a 2-year committment. For more information on the Palm Centro, please see our Palm Centro review or visit our sister site Everything Centro.

Palm Centro

Click to enlarge.

Source: EngadgetMobile

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: att, black, palm centro

Centro Cutting Into Treo Sales

March 17, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

According to financial analysts, Palm’s Centro smartphone is having an adverse affect on sales of the Palm Treo.

"We think the Centro is seeing modest success, but this is partially at the cost of higher margin Treo products," writes Citigroups Jim Suva. Suva went on to say, "We believe Centro products carry lower-than-corporate average margins to to the heavy subsidy required to hit the $99 price point. Centro traction may be viewed positively, but we think this will be offset by the negative financial impact." Suva also commented that Palm stands to lose more than RIM with Apple’s iPhone SDK release and entry into the Enterprise market.

The Palm Centro was originally thought of as a low-cost member of the Treo family, but Palm essentially rebranded the device as the Centro. The Centro has been referred to as a "Tiny Treo". While it has a smaller, pocketable form factor, the software package is virtually identical to the more expensive Palm Treo 755p. Palm released the Centro on Sprint Wireless back in October of 2007, months after the release of the Treo 755p was released on the same network. Palm most likely knew that releasing them at the same time would cause cannibalization of the higher priced Treo 755p. After the buzz of the Treo 755p had worn off, the Centro release injected new life into the Palm product line. The Centro has enjoyed modest success at time when Treo sales were slumping. While I’m sure there is some level of cannibalization that has occurred, it would have to be across carriers, thus meaning that a customer would have switch providers. Palm’s latest lineup includes:

Treo 755p (Carrier: Verizon Wireless)
Centro (Carrier: Sprint)
Centro (Carrier: AT&T)
Treo 750 (Carrier: AT&T)

It’s unclear how many "switchers" will jump carriers for a device. Not to mention that despite the same software bundle, these two smartphones are not cut from the same cloth. The more expensive Treo, while remaining a tad on bulky side, offers a better build quality than the value priced Centro. While AT&T offers both the Centro and Treo, the latter is the Treo 750 that runs Windows Mobile, while the Centro runs the Palm OS. While it is certainly plausible that some cannibalization has occured, it’s the lack of a new smartphone in the Treo series that is affecting Palm’s margins. The last major release was the Palm Treo 755p and this was seen as an evolutionary product. While the Treo 755p is new to Verizon, it’s release comes 7 months after the Sprint release of the same phone, that’s a significant amount of time when you are discussing mobile technology. Apple’s iPhone was released in June of last year and the company expects to reach the 10 million mark in device sales by the end of 2008.

Palm will announce their fiscal fiscal third quarter results Thursday. Analysts expect Palm to miss Wall Street estimates. As a result Palm shares were down today 18.5 cents or 4.7% at $4.88.

Source: Barrons

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: att, palm centro, palm treo, sprint, treo 750, treo 755p, verizon

Palm Centro for AT&T Review

March 5, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

The Palm Centro for AT&T Wireless is the first GSM smartphone from Palm since the release of the Treo 680. Palm positioned the Treo 680 as the smartphone for soccer moms, young professionals and typically first time smartphone owners that might otherwise be intimidated by a Treo. While the Treo 680 had a modest reception among this new target demographic, the diminutive Palm Centro has turned out to be quite the successful smartphone. Read our comprehensive review of the Palm Centro for AT&T Wireless. New Palm Centro owners can also add their reviews and ratings for Palm’s latest smartphone in our new interactive review section.

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: palm centro, review

Palm Centro In Colors

February 24, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

An official Palm online training guide shows the Palm Centro in a variety of colors, many of which have yet to be announced or released.

With the Treo 680, Palm released unlocked versions in a variety of colors, so many are speculating that Palm will do the same with the Centro. Unlocked smartphones allow owners to use their phone on any GSM network worldwide.

The new colors as shown below include glacier white (with grey numeric keys), obsidian black, ruby red and a navy blue variant.

Source: Palm InfoCenter

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: colors, palm centro, unlocked

AT&T and Palm Introduce Centro

February 19, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

AT&T Inc. and Palm Inc. today announced the availability of the Palm Centro from AT&T.The device is available for just $99.99 after rebates with a
2-year commitment. The new Centro is available today in glacier white and will be available in obsidian black next month.

AT&T Palm Centro in glacier white

Centro offers customers more choices to stay in touch with friends, family and co-workers by using voice, text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail or the Web.(2) Featuring a color touch-screen and full QWERTY keyboard, Centro is the first Palm OS product to launch with AT&T services, such as XM Radio Mobile, Push to Talk and MusicID.

Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm product to date and works with the nation’s largest digital voice and data network. Initially, the Palm Centro from AT&T is available in new “glacier white” with green keypad accents, and, in approximately one month, AT&T will debut a second color — “obsidian black.”

“The demand for crossover devices is skyrocketing, and the Centro hits a sweet spot for many customers looking for a QWERTY device with a solid suite of messaging and multimedia features,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Business Mobility Products for AT&T’s wireless unit. “At a great price that can be coupled with a variety of AT&T’s messaging and data options, we are thrilled to offer Centro to our 70.1 million customers.”

“Centro offers a simple way for customers to stay connected to the people who are important to them while better managing their increasingly hectic lifestyles, all at the price of a traditional mobile phone,” said Brodie Keast, senior vice president of Marketing for Palm, Inc.

AT&T Palm Centro in obsidian black

Click to enlarge.

Superior Phone

Centro’s touch-screen and keyboard, combined with the simplicity of Palm OS, make it easy to use with key features such as one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, ignore a call with text messaging and Bluetooth connectivity.

Easy Text Messaging

Centro’s text-messaging application displays text and multimedia messages in Palm’s chat-style view, just like PC-based instant messaging, so Centro users can see the entire conversation unfold. Palm is bringing this easy-to-use text messaging capability, which many Treo users have enjoyed for years, to Centro.

Instant Messaging

With the built-in IM application, customers can message with select contacts from their choice of AIM, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger instant messaging services.

E-Mail Options

Centro makes e-mail easy with Xpress Mail, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and Good Mobile Messaging. Using Xpress Mail, users can easily set up and access personal e-mail from Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, Windows Live and other popular Internet service providers.(3) Xpress Mail also provides access to Lotus Notes. Via Exchange ActiveSync, receiving Microsoft Outlook e-mail while on the go, as well as syncing Outlook contacts and calendar appointments, can be done right after the phone comes out of the box.(4) Good Mobile Messaging is also supported on Centro and is downloadable over the air from get.good.com.

Music Options

The AT&T Mobile Music platform includes the ability to sideload music with Napster and eMusic with built-in Pocket Tunes Deluxe, listen to live radio with XM Radio Mobile, discover new songs with MusicID and more. Centro from AT&T is the first Palm smart device to offer XM Radio Mobile. For $8.99 a month, XM Radio Mobile gives AT&T consumers 25 of the best XM Radio channels, featuring commercial-free rock, hip-hop, country, jazz and more. A free three-day trial is included with Centro.

With a database of more than 3 million artists and titles, Centro customers can use MusicID to identify an unknown song. While holding Centro up to a speaker, the MusicID application returns song information such as title, artist and cover art, if available. It also keeps track of previous IDs and allows users to share song information with friends via text messages, all for $3.99 a month. A free three-day trial is included with Centro.

Contacts and Calendar

Since Centro comes with the Palm OS, it offers all of the great organizer functionality for which Palm is renowned, such as a detailed and integrated contacts list. Also, the simple and handy calendar makes it easier to manage increasingly busy lives.

Other AT&T Services for Centro * Push to Talk — Centro users can instantly talk across the largest Push to Talk network coverage area in America. Push to Talk works like a walkie-talkie to talk to an individual or a group of up to 29 users. With status icons that clearly indicate the availability of friends and family, Push to Talk customers will know who is free before they call. Users can purchase unlimited Push to Talk minutes with Nation Plans for $9.99 a month for each line and with FamilyTalk for $19.99 a month for each group (two to five lines). Customers also can use Push to Talk on a pay-per-use basis for $0.15 a minute.(5) * TeleNav GPS Navigator — With an optional stand-alone GPS receiver accessory, TeleNav GPS Navigator gives Centro users access to maps and more than 10 million points of interest, as well as turn-by-turn voice and on-screen driving directions.(6) Unlimited access to Navigator costs $9.99 a month. * MobiTV — With MobiTV, Centro users can watch live television, premium and prime-time programming, video-on-demand clips and satellite and digital music services from the top broadcast and cable television networks and major music labels for $9.99 a month.

Optional TeleNav services on Palm Centro

Click to enlarge.

EDGE Network

The Palm Centro from AT&T operates on AT&T’s EDGE network, part of the GSM family of technologies. Used by more than 86 percent of the world’s wireless subscribers — 2.7 billion people(7) — GSM is the world’s most popular wireless phone technology, allowing unparalleled global roaming capabilities. AT&T customers with quad-band devices such as Centro can place calls in more than 195 countries and access data in more than 140.

AT&T’s EDGE network(8) is the largest national high speed wireless data network in the United States, with availability in more than 13,000 cities and towns and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. EDGE supports a wide range of data services, including streaming music, picture and video messaging, Internet access with the Blazer Web browser, instant messaging, Push to Talk and e-mail.

Pricing and Availability

The Palm Centro from AT&T is available at all AT&T retail stores and online at http://www.att.com and http://www.palm.com/centro for $99.99 after a two-year service agreement and a mail-in rebate. Unlimited e-mail and data access is available for $30 a month with AT&T’s PDA Personal data package with a corresponding voice plan. Messaging packages are available beginning at $5 for 200 text, picture, video or instant messages. Unlimited messaging is available for $20 for individual plans and $30 for FamilyTalk plans. For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit http://www.att.com.

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: att, palm, palm centro

AT&T Palm Centro Rumored for February 19th Release

February 12, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

A member in our forums has received confirmation from an AT&T Store Manager that the Palm Centro will be released on February 19th.

The source indicated the Palm Centro will be priced at $99 (presumably after rebates) and it will come in white. Sprint’s exclusivity on the Palm Centro was rumored to be 3 months and they began shipping in early October. Palm Europe announced a GSM Centro releasing this week, lending credibility to a US release being imminent. This release date has not yet been announced or confirmed by either Palm or AT&T.

Photos of the Palm Centro for AT&T have been circulating on the blogosphere for the past few months. However, it’s yet to be seen if Palm will bring over the Phone application that made it’s debut on the Palm Treo 680. For some reason, the Phone app did not make it’s way to the Treo 700p or Treo 755p, but those smartphones were only released on Verizon and Sprint. The Palm Centro will mark the first Palm smartphone on AT&T since the Palm Treo 680. If AT&T has some sort of exclusive on the Phone app, one can only hope that it’s part of the Palm Centro release. The phone application on the iPhone is actually reminiscent of the Palm phone application, offering easy access to favorites, recent calls and more. If the February 19th date is correct, we won’t have much longer to wait for confirmation.

Palm’s Phone application

Discuss the AT&T Palm Centro release in the Centro forums on EverythingCentro.

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: att, palm centro, release date

Centro Rumored for T Mobile and AT&T

January 21, 2008 by Christopher Meinck Leave a Comment

Palm could be preparing the Centro for release on T-Mobile and AT&T according to Tero Kuittinen, a financial analyst for Avian. Kuittinen has spoken with operator sources who indicate Palm will release the Centro on T-Mobile and AT&T. While the AT&T release has been widely speculated, the news of a Palm device on T-Mobile is certainly surprising.

The carriers have warmed up to Palm due to the success of the Centro on Sprint. Sprint’s three month exclusivity is expected to end later this month. Palm’s CFO declined to discuss specific operator details, but reportedly "giggled" when asked about T-Mobile carrying the Centro.

Source: Seeking Alpha via EverythingCentro

Filed Under: Palm Centro Tagged With: att, palm centro