Palm's Centro Tells Foes: 'Talk to the Hand'

This story contains corrected information. I've always said that if you give the consumer a good product -- and sell it for a good price -- you should have a winner. This is not brain surgery. And, it's rewarding when a well-known company figures it out.

Case in point: Palm(PALM), which was No. 1 in smartphones for years and years before others started to pass it by. So, instead of folding up shop completely, Palm innovated. It took its tried-and-true Treo technology and shrunk it. Not in functionality, but in size and price.

The result is the Centro currently being sold by Sprint(S) and AT&T(T). It is a great small design, with lots of functionality as well as truckloads of personality.

Palm Centro's a Heavy Hitter

So, it doesn't do BlackBerry mail like Research In Motion (RIMM) products -- but can do Exchange mail like Windows (MSFT) Mobile phones -- and it does the kind of email that most phone buyers use (POP and IMAP). It keeps your appointments and lets you surf the Web, take photos, listen to music and all the other good stuff.

Its keyboard is smaller than the Treo's, but the wizards in the Palm labs have actually made its keys easier to use. Despite its small size, I find that it's easier to type on the Centro than on many other smartphones.

It's also a great cell phone (something that is not always a given these days).

But, and I've left this for last, its best feature is its price. Whether you buy one from Sprint (S) or AT&T (T), a Palm Centro will cost you only $99 with a two-year cellular plan. That's $99 -- not $200, $300, $400, $500 or more.