Centro Adds Verizon to Its Horizon

Palm Centro... meet Verizon Wireless.

Beginning Friday, Verizon(VZ Quote - Cramer on VZ - Stock Picks) will join the battle and begin selling Palm's(PALM Quote - Cramer on PALM - Stock Picks) "little smartphone that can."

Following in the footsteps of Sprint/Nextel(S Quote - Cramer on S - Stock Picks) last fall, and AT&T(T Quote - Cramer on T - Stock Picks) a few months ago, Verizon will now market its version of the Centro, the small, feature-laden smartphone from Palm. Verizon will also sell Centro for $99 when users opt for a two-year phone service contract.

To date, Palm has sold more than one million Centros, which has been very good for its bottom line. Starting tomorrow, Verizon's 67 million subscribers will also get a chance to purchase a Centro and use a very worthy smartphone (with a surprisingly good QWERTY keyboard for its size.)

Palm's Centro Is a Petite Powerhouse

Starting next month, the Centro will have some very stiff competition. Apple's(AAPL Quote - Cramer on AAPL - Stock Picks) new iPhone 3G is slated to have a starting price of $199 (for the 8GB model). While not below the magical number of $100 -- the upper level price most American cell phone buyers are willing to spend -- the new iPhone could have an effect on Centro buyers.

And don't forget all the other new smartphones about to be released: the Android-based phones (formerly referred to as the Google(GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) Gphone), the two new RIM(RIMM Quote - Cramer on RIMM - Stock Picks) Blackberry models, Sprint/Samsung's Instinct, the Garmin(GRMN Quote - Cramer on GRMN - Stock Picks) Nuviphone, SonyEricsson's Xperia and a slew of others.

From the start, Palm targeted the Centro to consumers -- especially to people who had never used smartphones before -- that had mainly been put off by high prices. So, Centros, while falling in the same price range as a "regular" cell phone, comes loaded with all sorts of cool data features, including mobile email and Web browsing. The pretty colors (Black, Red, White) didn't hurt either. Verizon's special color is Cobalt Blue. Palm chose the audience wisely and marketed a phone just for them.