NEW YORK—Palm Inc. launched its quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Treo 680 smart phone running on the Palm OS platform.
The slim phone features e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar and contacts capabilities and includes a full keyboard and a color screen. The company said it is targeting the device at “price-sensitive” consumers who want a more powerful device than a feature phone. The company did not release an exact price for the phone.
Palm said its U.S. retail and online stores will sell an unlocked GSM version of the phone in four choices of color, and for a limited time will include a music bundle from Yahoo that provides a 30-day free trial.
The company said it expects to the device to be available through more than 20 carriers worldwide by next summer.
In other Palm news, the company said it will offer an interactive mapping service from Google Maps to its Treo smart phone users. The service is a free downloadable Palm OS application that offers directions, local search, moveable and scalable maps, location satellite imagery and traffic updates. The service is available on Palm’s new 680 smart phone as well as its Treo 700p, Treo 650 and Treo 600 models.
Separately, Palm announced it hired Y & R to manage its worldwide advertising efforts.
