Palm Centro GSM phones descend upon South America

FULL PAGE ADS over the weekend in the local papers marked the arrival of the Palm Centro in the retail channel at the southern end of South America, after successful roll-outs throughout LatAm.

In March, the Treonauts web site dubbed the Centro the "Fastest Selling Palm Smartphone", and by April, it reached the million units milestone.

Sergio Stivala, Palm LatAm Southern Cone Country Manager

And that's no surprise: the Centro combines an attractive look, a small form factor, a full QWERTY keyboard and the ease of use of Palm's traditional operating system, the Palm OS (version 5.4.9, for the record) all this for an enticing low price in the US and those markets where the manufacturer has reached agreements with mobile operators to offer it with year-plus long service plans.

Full-page ads for a PalmOS based phone: it's been a long time

A month ago, the Centro was lunched in Colombia with operators Movistar and Comcel. The same kind of network deal was made in Mexico, where the Centro is being offered by Telcel and Movistar. Negotiations down in Argentina with the three mobile operators are still in the works so Palm's local branch hasn't yet announced any operator deals and discounted prices.

Red Centro. South Americans get Red and Blue. Brazilians got it Black and White

The Centro is sold as what we call a 'smartphone in disguise', because the ads target Generation-X users who don't necessarily buy one to keep to-do lists or use the PIM apps, and plenty of whom might not have ever used a PDA before. As such, the ads highlight the phone's 'social' features like messaging friends, doing the occasional web browsing and looking up directions with Google Maps, in addition to more individual features like playing music and videos.

So, in a sense, these newcomers to the smartphone world buy 'a cool looking phone with an easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard" and end up getting a full smartphone. The extra functionality is there should they choose to make use of it. The Palm OS user in this somewhat biased scribbler just wishes the ads better highlighted the wide availability of third-party.

Let's go party on the beach. Socialising is the new mantra.

Palm execs say that more than 70 per cent of new Centro buyers are smartphone users for the first time. They also say that compared to traditional Treo buyers, Centro owners are predominantly aged below 35, and that the Centro is twice as popular with women compared to its bigger smartphones.

Brazilian ones are black. The rest get red and blue

Strangely, the Brazilian market got black Centros, and white ones, as well. All GSM and with a prepaid chip from Vivo currently retailing for 809 Brazilian Reais, equivalent at today's exchange rate to $491 US dollars, €316 or £249. Chile, like Argentina, also got the Red and B lue ones.

In the meantime, anxious buyers with pre-paid SIM cards and money in their bank accounts - including European tourists in expat-haven Buenos Aires - can rush to a few local retail chains like CompuMundo or hit a few web retailers like the third party PalmStore to order a GSM Centro.

As stated above, Palm's Argentinian branch decided to offer the Centro in Blue and Red. The Centros we found in Brazil are black coloured although further inspection revealed white ones as well, and initial reports on Centros in Mexico only mentioned the blue ones, but they have the two colours like the rest of LatAm.

The initial price down in Argentina where this scribbler is stationed was a bit of a downer, with a whopping introductory price equivalent to €414 or £325, the same exact price of a Treo 680 in the local market.

These price differences between the Brazilian and Argentine market pricing seem a bit intriguing, but one would presume that the Vivo ones we found on-line are SIM-locked to that carrier. Still, both South American markets' prices are definitely a bit more expensive compared to the £154 to £199 in Blighty as found unlocked at Amazon.co.uk - including 17.5 per cent VAT.

Of course, shipping, insurance, import duties, all come into play. But Britons reading this can rejoice knowing that 'rip-off Britain' sometimes has worthy competitors in the high prices field. On the upside, at least one web site linked above has the option of paying with plastic in six monthly installments at a zero per cent interest rate.

Caveat emptor: in the end, the most attractive prices for buyers in the Southern Cone will surely arrive in a few weeks when mobile operators start offering the Centro with voice and data plans. We will keep an eye out for any announcements and report appropriately, of course.

But for World+Dog readers located elsewhere the biggest news worth reporting here is to see a Palm Inc going back to its roots, recognising its own traditional OS's strengths, and trumpeting a cute PalmOS-based phone for a consumer audience which often does not 'connect' with the idea of owning a smartphone. Incidentally - perhaps even exceeding the firm's original expectations - it seems to be selling like hotcakes, when priced appropriately.

Moral of the Story: It seems rumors about PalmOS' death have been greatly exaggerated. µ

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