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June 13, 2008

Beginning today, Verizon Wireless is offering the Palm Centro smartphone to its customers.

Dressed in a flashy cobalt blue, the Centro provides users access to text messaging, eMail and mobile Internet, as well as the usual voice services.

The Palm Centro will be available on Verizon’s site and in stores for $99.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate with a new two-year contract.

Along with the Centro, Verizon is also offering its unlimited monthly data plan for smartphones for $29.99.

While a pioneer to the smartphone market, Palm has seen its market share flagging over recent years, but the Centro has seen positive results for the handset maker.

Matt Thornton, telecommunications equipment analyst at Avian Securities, wrote in a research note that Verizon’s launch of Palm’s Centro and Palm’s new slimmer Treo due out in July or August should generate some positive returns for Palm.

The Centro has been available at Sprint and AT&T for some time.

Thornton added “although it has seen very good penetration at Sprint, our surveys are showing that this market penetration has topped out. Inroads at AT&T have been less impressive.”

Thornton also doesn’t expect Palm's new slimmer Treo, the 800w/850w to be a game changer, but does expect it will boost ASPs and gross margins for the company.

Along with the Centro announcement, Verizon also announced the upcoming availability of three new handsets from LG:

The LG Dare

The LG Decoy

The new LG Chocolate 3

All three handsets are scheduled to debut with Verizon next month.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0.

Source: Verizon Wireless.