As expected, Sprint's released an updated edition of the Palm Centro—with twice the amount of memory (128MB) and in two new colors, Olive green and Vibrant rose. According to Palm, the inspiration for the new colors was closely tied to fashion trends for this season, as forecasted by the color experts of the PANTONE Fashion Color Reports for Fall 2008 and Spring 2009.

Available in an enhanced soft touch finish, the new and improved Centro can be had for as little as $79.99 with a two-year contract and $100 mail-in rebate as well as a $25 or higher data plan. Meanwhile, you can get the original Centro model from Sprint for only $50 with a two-year service agreement and after a mail-in rebate.

With the Centro, Palm had its first hit in years, selling a couple of million of them by June of this year, far less than year after the original release of the low-end, Palm OS-run smartphone. Centro ranked fourth for smartphones sold this summer, from June through August—behind the iPhone 3G, RIM BlackBerry Curve and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl.

Centro has proved particularly popular among those stepping up to a smartphone for the first time. According to Palm, for 75 percent of those who buy Centro, it is their first smartphone. This is the very type of user Palm said it was targeting when it first announced Centro in September 2007.

Palm is now offering Centro in more than 25 countries in North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, through 20 mobile operators, including the top-three U.S. carriers (AT&T, Verizon, & Sprint).

Additional Centro features include support for Sprint's EV-DO data network, Bluetooth, a microSD card slot for additional storage and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

Like other Palm smartphone models, the small 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.73-inch and light 4.2-ounce sports a QWERTY thumb-keyboard underneath its 320 x 320-pixel resolution touch display.