…someone interested in buying a next-generation Razr or other feature-based phone might consider reasonable, Ed Colligan, chief executive of Palm, said during the product's introduction at the DigitalLife show in New York on Thursday.
In addition to having a lower price than other smartphones, the Centro tries to address design issues. In essence, the Centro is a smaller version of Palm's Treo 755p. It works over Sprint's 3G wireless network. It supports Microsoft Exchange Direct Push to allow users to get work email. And Sprint has provided easy access to web-based email such as Gmail, AOL and Yahoo, along with access to common IM platforms.
"The Centro is a very nice form factor that is small enough to compete with a standard feature phone," Colligan said. "It's also priced like a feature phone. Yet it has all the power of a Treo."
Analysts say they expect the Centro to resonate well with some price-conscious consumers, especially as it has been introduced following the major hype of Apple's iPhone. It is arguable that these products don't compete with one another at all. Priced at $400, the iPhone addresses a totally different market segment. From a features perspective, the phones will also probably not compete. Not many people will buy the Centro as a combination phone and media player, and it's unlikely that long-time Palm users, who may want a sleeker design, would give up access to their corporate email for an iPhone.
But the frenzy around the iPhone this summer has certainly elevated the conversation around smartphones, which Palm's executives hope will help sell Centros.
"There's no question that the iPhone has sparked the imagination of people who would not have otherwise looked at devices like this," Colligan said. "Apple did a beautiful job executing on the design of this product but, when people really compare them side by side, they'll see they can get a lot of advanced features, like 3G wireless access, in a product that is a quarter of the price."
The iPhone operates on AT&T's slower 2.5G network but, unlike the Centro, it also offers Wi-Fi access.
While it's true that the Centro is on a faster network than the iPhone, in many respects the device's design is still way behind Apple's iPhone. For example, Centro's touchscreen doesn't even approach the functionality or design of the iPhone's screen.
But Palm's biggest problem remains the perennial thorn in the company's side: the ancient Palm OS, Garnet. That operating system was originally designed for PDAs, not Treos, and, while Palm has done a great deal of work to make Garnet into a smartphone OS, the company still hasn't released a major update since 2004. Palm has been trying to release a new OS that preserves the Palm heritage, but it has been delayed several times, and now won't be available until next year.
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Until Palm comes up with an operating system that rivals Apple's OS X, Symbian or Windows Mobile (which Palm also offers), it might have trouble attracting smartphone converts looking for something new and cool. The Centro at least updates the industrial design of Palm's products, but beautiful and useful design involves more than hardware.
"The iPhone has raised the bar in terms of what a cell phone could be," said Sean Ryan, a research analyst with IDC. "In a way, Apple is educating the market. And people see what a cell phone is capable of."
