THE RUMOUR making the rounds is that a keyboard-less version of Palm's Centro smartphone is in the works. The web site Treonauts is showing an alleged leaked advertisement from Bell Canada.

The phone pictured in the ad is quite attractive and features a large touch screen with 320x480 resolution, reminiscent of Sony's Clie Nx series handhelds. There are no words about whether this phone will run Palm OS, the next-generation "Nova" Linux based OS from Palm - still being worked on - or Windows Mobile.

Treonauts notes, "dedicated Play/Pause + Back/Forward music buttons at the top of the device" and the writer was very optimistic about this device. He writes: "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 against the Iphone". It also notes that the leaked ad shows the " Centro2" in five colours including a new one: yellow, in addition to the red, blue, black and pink already available in which the current Centro is available in different parts of the World.

The speculation on what OS the "Centro2" will run seems a bit groundless, however. In a recent interview, Ed Colligan, Palm's CEO, said: "Centro is our consumer line of products, the start of a product line to hit that demographic and price point. [...] Centro will be strictly Palm OS."

So if one believes Colligan's own words, there would be no doubt that this " Centro 2" will also run Palm OS.

See the leaked ads and more speculation on possible announcement dates over here. µ