Yesterday, Sprint was showing off new handsets that will be debuting during the second half of 2007 at the Tech Summit conference being held in Reston, Virginia.

During this event, Sprint showed off a new smartphone from Palm which was called "Centro."  Folks reading my 1SRC Editorial and listening to my weekly 1SRC podcast have heard me talk about this device as "Gandolf" and the Treo 690.  From the details that we know so far, I am expecting Centro to be Palm's new low-cost entry level smartphone that Palm executives were talking about back in April during Palm's Analyst Day event.

We also know that Centro will cost about $99 with a new service agreement, which will likely be a two-year agreement.  We also know that this device is smaller than any previously released Treo smartphone according to Sascha Segan's hands on article over at Gearlog.com .

In an email to GadgetsOnTheGo.net editor Jimmie Geddes, Palm confirmed the existence of Centro and indicated that Centro will debut on the Sprint network and that it will be a low-cost device.  Additional details confirmed by Palm are that the phone will be smaller than existing Treo smartphones; it will run Palm OS that it has an EVDO radio, and it will have a touch screen.

Since this was not an official product announcement, there are many details still missing from the picture that Palm will release as we get closer to the product launch.

There are a couple of things that I find intriguing about the Centro.  First of all, it will be a low cost device.  That's good news.  Secondly, according to the Gearlog article, the keyboard is very small, and is could be hard for an adult to type on with two thumbs.  Thirdly the Centro is not targeted at the business user, also good news for potential non-business customers.  But it is the small form factor, low cost, and EVDO radio that got me thinking.  I wonder if the Centro could become part of a two-piece Palm mobility bundle which includes the Centro smartphone and the Foleo Mobile Companion.  Now customers could have a slimmer Treo smartphone and have the larger keyboard and display for note taking and email coupled with Sprint's high-speed EVDO network.  Suddenly, $500-600 Foleo package doesn't seem so expensive anymore.

Let us know what you think in the 1SRC forums.