A PDAPhone for Under $100?

Palm is taking a step in the reverse direction of all its competitors by introducing a simpler and cheaper PDAPhone that will be available on Sprint's network for $99 (after contract, discounts, and rebates). While all the other makers of PDAPhones continue to push the envelope and pack more and more power into their new devices, Palm is going to exploit something they have ridden for several years now... a simpler mouse trap. In my review of the Treo 755P a few months back, I observed that there wasn't much in the OS that looked any different from my very first Palm Pilot years ago. I guess this is one way to exploit that fact.

The new device will be called the Palm Centro and we believe will be an exclusive for Sprint (exclusive devices seem to be gaining popularity as the market gets more saturated). Palm is hoping to compete with regular cellphones with the Centro, and thus attract the larger market of average cellphone buyers. While this is a noble goal, and while it would be great to get out of the niche of PDAPhone buyers, there isn't anything new here that I can see which will make it simpler for the average phone user to embrace the Centro. We'll have to wait for a full review to verify this theory, but if the interface hasn't changed... its still much like a Treo under the covers.

The Centro will come with come with 64MB of memory, a QWERTY keyboard, and Bluetooth. The display will be 320x320 and the built-in camera will be 1.3 megapixel. These specs aren't much different from Treos past. As with most new Sprint devices, it will also offer Sprint TV an the other usual Sprint features. Mapping will be done via Google Pams through the built-in Blazer web browser.

The Centro could be just the ticket to get PDAPhones into the mainstream... but it could also be viewed as repackaging an older device. I would have liked to have seen this Palm be their first flip phone. I think that is what would have gotten it into the mainstream.