The Pixi is a non-slider with touchscreen and full keyboard. It will cost about $149 with two year contract and rebates on Sprint. You have 8GB of on board storage and it takes 2-megapixel pictures – down from the Pre’s 3-megapixels.

There is no Wi-Fi, a dealbreaker for many. The Pixi will be available in multiple “Artist Series” styles and will be available around the holidays.

The Pre costs about $199 – cut to $99 for a bit and then raised back up – so a $50 savings isn’t much when it comes to a device without Wi-Fi. I think the average smartphone buyer is looking for a few things in a device – a touchscreen, 3G networking, and, ideally, some alternative form of transfer. This doesn’t have it.

That said, it’s a fascinating move by Palm. Either they wanted to bury this news in the Apple event today or they foolishly thought this would overshadow the event. I’m betting on the former.

WebOS is a contender but with phones like the Hero and the Tattoo appearing on the horizon and HTC really taking a a hard look at its competitors – and eating them – Palm may be barking up the wrong tree.

We’ll have hands on later today.

Thin Palm Pixi Phone Puts

Fast, Intuitive Communication at Fingertips

Palm’s Thinnest Phone Yet Expands Palm webOS Line with Customizable Style

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2009 – Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today introduced the Palm® Pixi™ phone for faster, more intuitive and personal communication in a compact and customizable design.(1) With the instinctively useable Palm webOS™ platform, strikingly thin design, a visible full keyboard and fashionable personalization options, Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways. It’s scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in time for the holidays.

“With Palm webOS, we’re creating a new, more intuitive smartphone experience defined by unmatched simplicity and usefulness,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “Palm Pixi brings this unique experience to a broader range of people who want enhanced messaging and social networking in a design that lets them express their personal style.”

In addition to linking your information from Google™, Facebook and Exchange ActiveSync, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration to Palm Synergy™ and assembles it all in a single view.(2) You can get your Yahoo! contacts, calendar and IM, and access to your LinkedIn contacts, including job titles. Synergy on Palm Pixi makes messaging easier by showing you all your conversations with the same person in one chat-style thread, so you can start a conversation on AIM Instant Messenger, Google Talk™ or Yahoo! Messenger and continue it by text message later.(3)

Complementing the phone’s already rich Facebook integration with the contacts, phone, calendar and photo applications, a new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi so you can see and comment on all the latest news from your friends, as well as easily update your status. The phone’s full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures.(4) The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable.

Personalization with Style

For those who want to express themselves with some extra style, Palm is introducing the Palm Pixi Artist Series. Designed by some of today’s most unique and compelling artists, these numbered, limited-edition back covers let you change designs to suit your mood. You can see the first collection in the series, as well as information about the artists, at www.palm.com/artistseries. Palm will be showcasing the fashionable new Palm Pixi with the Artist Series covers this week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York (Sept. 10-17).

You can also tailor Palm Pixi to your interests with downloadable applications from the Palm Beta App Catalog, including the latest entertainment and social networking applications such as Local Concerts by iLike, and Yelp™.(5) You can use Palm media sync to customize your phone with music, photos and videos from iTunes (Versions 8.1.1-8.2.1)(6), or use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air.(3)

“Palm Pixi continues Sprint’s leadership in providing useful and innovative devices on America’s most dependable 3G network,”(7) said Dan Hesse, chief executive officer at Sprint. “We are pleased to be the first carrier to bring this device to market and offer both devices in the growing Palm webOS family. Sprint’s Everything Data plans, which provide unrestricted access to the Internet, mobile content and applications, and our Ready Now retail experience make for a perfect combination with these new Palm products.”

The Sprint Mobile Broadband Network reaches more than 271 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports, and Sprint’s networks are now performing at best-ever levels.

Customers who purchase Palm Pixi will benefit from Sprint’s Ready Now, which the company pioneered to help customers leave the store educated, comfortable and confident about the phones they’re taking home. It is like having a free personal trainer that educates you on all your phone can do by setting up all the applications you want to use on the device.

Palm Pixi is also the perfect complement to Sprint’s Simply EverythingSM plan, which provides unlimited nationwide calling, texting, email, social networking, web browsing, GPS navigation, Sprint TV, streaming music, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile and much more for only $99.99 per month. It’s a savings of $1,200 over two years versus some comparable competitor plans.

Palm Pixi Features

High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A)
2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320×400 resolution TFT display
Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation
Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging
Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities), including Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo! IM
High-performance, desktop-class web browser
Integrated GPS(8)
Multimedia options, including pictures, video playback and music, and featuring a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack
Email, including Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (Google push, Yahoo! push, POP3, IMAP)(9)
Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
8GB of internal user storage (~7GB user available)(10)
USB mass storage mode
MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
The first handset to launch with Qualcomm’s high-performance MSM7627™ chipset
Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective
Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch
Removable, rechargeable 1150 mAh battery
Dimensions: 55mm (W) x 111mm (L) x 10.85mm (D) [2.17 in. (W) x 4.37 in. (L) x 0.43 in. (D)]
Weight: 99.5 grams (3.51 ounces)
Sprint services, including Sprint TV® and Sprint Radio, Sprint Navigation, Sprint’s exclusive NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live

Availability and Pricing

The Palm Pixi phone is scheduled to be available from Sprint in time for the holidays. Pricing for the phone, as well as the limited-edition Palm Pixi Artist Series covers, will be announced closer to availability. Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi and be notified when it’s available can register at www.palm.com/pixi.

In addition, effective today the Palm Pre™ phone from Sprint is available for $149.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $150 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate. You can find this great pricing at Sprint stores, on the web (www.sprint.com) and by calling Sprint’s telesales group (1-800-SPRINT1). With the new Palm Pixi phone, and Palm Pre at a lower price, Palm and Sprint are bringing greater choice of Palm webOS phones to a larger audience.

iSync 3.1.0, to be shipped with Snow Leopard, has struck another blow against Palm. What is it this time? They’ve removed Palm HotSync support, relegating thousands of Centro, Treo, Zire, Tungsten, and Palm Pilot users to the darkest corners of Obsoletia. When will this arms race end?

Writes AppleInsider:

It does not appear that the discontinuation of legacy Palm OS support in iSync is at all related to efforts by Palm to trick iTunes into syncing data with the new Palm Pre as if it were an iPod. While Apple doesn’t provide a public syncing system for using iTunes, it does provide public APIs for any developer to hook into Mac OS X’s Sync Services.

No, it does not appear this way because Palm is busy trying to forget it’s decade of madness and missteps and couldn’t care less for you and your Life Drive.

Honestly, there is no way to confirm whether this is the phone that Michael Arrington’s source was talking about, but at least the form factor seems about right for a Pre-Mini and follows the company’s low-cost Centro styling. But then again, that pic could be the Lock Ness Monster herself, and we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Wow, who would have believed it? The Palm Pre actually exists outside of private tradeshow demos and the hands of celebrities?

If that’s actually a real, functional Pre and not a mock-up or a well-done knockoff, it looks like accessory manufacturers have began getting shipments of the much coveted Sprint handset. An anonymous Ludle employee tipster just posted a few shots of the Pre alongside a Centro and an iPhone, noting a few things:

Read the rest of this entry >>

So who wins in the end? I don’t want to spoil it for you. Okay, fine — it turns out the Dare was dead the whole time! I know, isn’t that insane?

It’s not quite the February 15th rumor from a couple weeks ago, but BGR is reporting that the Palm Pre might be launching around March 15th according to an end-of-life (EOL) list of Sprint handsets leaked from somewhere inside the company.

The February 15th phone appears to be the Treo Pro, which will replace the Palm 800w. The Palm Pre has a “target in-stock” date of 3/15 and will replace the Palm 755p if the leaked document is to be believed.

Unfortunately, the actual document hasn’t been posted anywhere so, as always, take info like this with a grain of salt. The list below shows end-of-life dates for current devices, with each device followed by the device that’ll replace it (if applicable).

Device Name – Projected Warehouse EOL – Replacement (if available)

• Sierra Compass 597 USB – Early February – Sierra 598 USB
• Motorola ic602 – Early February
• LG 160 – Mid-February – Samsung M220
• LG Rumor (blue) – Mid February – LG 265 Rumor II (target in-stock 2/15)
• Motorola i325IS – Mid February – Motorola i365IS
• LG Rumor (green) – Mid March – LG 265 Rumor II (target in-stock 2/15)
• Franklin Wireless U680 USB – Early April
• Palm 800W – April – Palm Treo Pro (target in-stock 2/15)
• LG Rumor (black) – Mid April – LG 265 Rumor II (target in-stock 2/15)
• Motorola i615 – Mid April
• Samsung M520 Lumina – Mid April – LG LX370 (slider)
• RIM BlackBerry Pearl (red) – May
• LG LX400 – Late May
• Palm 755P (blue) – Late May – Palm Pre (target in-stock 3/15)
• Sanyo 6750 Eclipse (pink) – June
• Palm Centro (berry) – June
• Motorola Q9C – Mid June
• Sierra 597E – July – Sierra 2-in-1 Aircard
• Palm Centro (green) – July
• Palm Centro refresh (black) – July
• Motorola VE20 – July
• HTC Touch Diamond – July
• RIM BlackBerry 7100i – August – RIM BlackBerry 8350i

[via BGR]

The Palm Pre made a huge splash last week at CES, partly due to the sleek looking form factor which is a large departure from the Palm Treo or Centro stodgy form factor. Dell would have to find the same mojo ’cause design matters these days. A great OS (more on that later) doesn’t mean squat if it’s loaded on grey box-type phone. 

Thankfully, Dell picked up the driving force behind the Motorola RAZR back in 2007 and slapped the title President of Consumer Business on his nameplate. Hopefully, if Dell does indeed have a smartphone coming, Ron Garriques will be able to steer the huge PC maker in the right direction in terms of design and also away from the Windows Mobile Platform.

Windows Mobile is dying a slow death. It’s still one of the most popular operating systems on mobile devices, right behind Symbian in terms of install base, but hopefully Dell isn’t betting it all on the antiquated platform. What a Dell smartphone really needs is a solid Android or Symbian UI for the smartphone, but chances are Dell will turn to Microsoft’s deep coffers. 

Dell and Microsoft have a long history together and they both need an ace in the latest smartphone marathon. But unless Microsoft has recoded Windows Mobile into a stellar system, this phone would be simply cast aside in favor of a better OS no matter how good the hardware happens to be.

So, here’s hoping that Dell does have a non-Windows Mobile smartphone ready to drop and that it’s competitively priced too. Oh, and on a good carrier.

We’re admittedly a little late on the uptake for this one but in case you missed it, here are some good deals from Radio Shack’s leaked Black Friday ad:

• $80 to $100 off of select TomTom, Mio, and Garmin GPS units
• Memorex HD digital camcorder for $79
• SmartParts 10.4-inch digital photo frame for $99
• Casio EX-Z9 digital camera plus Canon photo printer for $99 after rebates
• Envision 32-inch LCD TV for $399
• Gateway 15.4-inch notebook (3GB RAM, 250GB hard drive) for $499 after rebates
• Netgear Super-G router for $29
• Whistler cordless radar detector for $49
• Sprint Palm Centro free with 2-year contract
• AT&T Samsung Propel free with 2-year contract and unlimited text package
• Canon PIXMA MX300 printer free with any digital camera purchase after rebate
• Memorex upconverting DVD player with HDMI output for $29
• Free alarm clock iPod dock with purchase of Nano, Classic, or 8GB iPod Touch

Full list of items here, full ad scan here.

Just in time for the holiday spending blitz, the Palm Centro is going to be available in two new colors! I know, it’s so exciting. Almost as much as new Apple notebooks. Anyway, these Sprint-branded Centro’s are going to retail for the same price as the current Onyx version $79 through January 10th with a two-year contract and comes with twice the RAM as the original - 128 MB – when they launch on October 19, 2008.

So we return to the Palm Treo Pro, a $549 unlocked Windows Mobile Treo aimed squarely at the business set. It’s been about a week and I’ve used this guy off and on. It kept a nice charge – two days, for the most part, without much data use – and fit nicely in the pocket. But is it the Treo of which we all incessantly dream? Is it the Treo that will bring us closer to world peace and better burritos on the East Coast? Is this the Treo for you?

Yes, it is the Treo for you if you are a business professional forced to use Windows Mobile and you travel quite a bit and hardware price is no object. This is also the Treo for you if you’re buying a few cellphones for the CEO and the CFO and you want them to be productive without having to change your Windows-based IT and communications infrastructure. If you are neither of those people, think of the Treo Pro as a vision of Palm’s future.

The Treo Pro is one of Palm’s most attractive Treos to date. Gone is the lumpen plastic of the Centro and the low-gloss ho-hummery of the 800w. Whereas the Centro and the 800w took design cues from the lower end of the market, Treo tapped HTC to design this new looker and for good reason. The RIM, in a general, sense, was eating their enterprise lunch and the Centro was doing just fine.

So we have the Treo Pro. As its name implies, this isn’t for amateurs. Because it’s unlocked and unsubsidized you’d better have a damn good reason for going Windows Mobile. This could mean IT departments buying in bulk for their executives or a mobile professional who wants a messaging phone but still likes ActiveSync. Europe loves them some Windows Mobile, so their unlocked model is a good move. The US market, sadly, looks at expensive phones and then looks elsewhere. The Blackberry Curve didn’t get where it is on its good looks.

The phone is very thin and the keyboard very usable. I had no issues with tapping out emails or messages and once set up it’s easy to get mail and surf the web. The rounded hang-up and call buttons are a great touch but the odd center “Palm” button and the additional OK button made for some odd moments – which one does what? Aren’t they the same? Reader, I don’t know. The phone also has G.P.S. built in.

A dedicated silencing switch on the top and a dedicated Wi-Fi button on the side are probably the most useful features. Windows Mobile has been streamlined quite nicely with Wi-Fi discovery and connection made a snap by the button and search and messaging made easier with an uncluttered front page.

Who is this phone going against? I’d say Palm is aiming at two other handsets. One starts with B and ends with -old and the other starts with i and ends with Phone. The Bold is the Pro’s closest rival with its updated styling. This phone also goes against the stunning new Nokia E71.

Right now, if I were to recommend a QWERTY smartphone to someone with a little money, I’d say the Bold was the best in the RIM category, the Pro was the best in Windows Mobile, and the E71 was the best in Symbian. That, I’m happy to say, is a great feeling. I’m a long-time fan of Palm and their dips of late have disturbed and depressed me. I’m still not in love with the Centro and the 800w was ho-hum but the peppy processor and attractive styling of the Pro made me rethink my misdirected anger.

What are my concerns? That people see the nearly $600 price tag and balk. Nokia can play in the unsubsidized market simply because it’s been working in that space for quite a long time. When we think of the Treo we think of carrier-specific models – to untether the Pro, even though they’ve done the same for the Centro with little fanfare, is distressing. I’ve been promised good things from Palm in the next few months but I worry their time has passed. Android could replaces Palm OS as the geek OS of choice and the iPhone and its various knock-offs are what’s popular with the kids. This is a step in the right direction. Let’s hope the next step comes sooner than later.

Here we are, friends: the $549 WinMo smartphone from Palm. Initial opinions: it’s a nice size, very slim. Smaller than the Centro and the OS is fairly peppy. A dedicated WiFi button on the side makes picking up networks much easier and they’ve stripped out a lot of the MSN garbage from the WinMo start-up screen. We’ll be working with it over the next week and report back on Wednesday, presumably embargoed so Walt Mossberg can review it.

That said, I’m going to try to be calm and objective and state, for the record, that the Treo 800w is one of the better Windows Mobile phones I’ve seen in recent years, even surpassing phones like the HTC Touch Diamond. and the T-Mobile Dash in terms of performance, price, and durability.

The phone has a large, bright 320×320 pixel touchscreen and a full keyboard with the standard easy-to-tap Treo keys. Four dedicated buttons around the central directional button offer a Windows menu, an “OK” keypress, access to your calendar, and access to your messages. A central “Palm” button seems to mimic the OK button, a design choice I would not have made.

The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and all of the applications were snappy and worked well under heavy multi-tasking conditions. The Instant Messenger app, which you must download before you can use, worked well in the background. In these two basic functions, the 800w excelled. The default home screen shows you your current unread mail count and offers two different search systems, one based on GPS – which is built-in – and other based on Windows Live Search.

There is a full-sized stylus that hangs out in the phone’s right corner. The stylus feels a bit flimsy compared to the rest of the phone. The entire phone is built like a rock with lots of battery – you get about 4.5 hours of talk time and 200 on standby, which I confirmed by carrying this thing for about a week with only one or two recharges – and it weighs five ounces. It has a 2-megapixel camera with video capture.

I know that for many Windows Mobile is the only way to go when it comes to corporate network interaction. I am aware that it is quite popular in Europe and that it plays nicely with Exchange server. To that end, I can recommend the Treo. It is sturdy, handsome, and easy to use for the vast majority of smartphone users. It is not quite a “casual” grade device – it’s too thick for that and the Palm Centro already has that space sewn up. At $249.99 with two-year contract the 800w is a direct competitor to most of the BlackBerry offerings and, taken as a whole, the phone can be taken as a proud member of the smartphone community. What it lacks in good looks it makes up for in utility.

Full Specs
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Do you have 17 minutes? Do you care about the Palm Centro? Well CNBC has a video for you. Thrill as Palm CEO Ed Colligan can basically say $99 and Centro for over 15 minutes straight while Jim Goldman of TechCheck throws him softballs.

Palm sold 2 million Centros so far. To put that into perspective, Apple sold 4 million iPhones. Nokia sold 2 million phones last night to some guy in the back of a van. RIM can buy and sell Ed Colligan.

Sure, the Centro is a cute phone. It’s got some great features for the price. Sadly, it’s simply keeping Palm on life-support. Like Motorola squeezing out new RAZRs and RAZR-alikes, Palm needs to put up or shut up. The low-end smartphone market will soon be taken over by Android and HTC and then where does that put the Centro?

Which means most of that growth was again coming from its wireless arm: Verizon Wireless reported adding 1.5 million new customers during the second quarter, with the lowest record churn rate (or number of customers leaving for another carrier) of 1.12%. Verizon Wireless said its total revenues were up 11.8% from the same quarter last year, and that its average monthly reveneue per customer increased for the 9th consecutive quarter, coming in at $51.53, monthly data revenue was up 31.3%.

Verizon also said it successfully sold more FiOS services including 176,000 new FiOS TV customers, and 187,000 net new FiOS Internet customers.

Verizon Reports Double-Digit Earnings Growth, Strong Operating Cash Flows, Sales Gains in All Key Areas in 2Q

NEW YORK — Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today reported continued strong results in the second quarter 2008. Verizon Wireless again led the industry in key metrics, while Verizon Wireline expanded penetration of FiOS services and continued to increase sales of strategic business services.

Verizon reported 66 cents in diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the second quarter 2008, compared with 58 cents per share in the second quarter 2007.

On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), second-quarter 2008 earnings were 67 cents per share, a 15.5 percent increase compared with 58 cents per share in the second quarter 2007.

Adjusted earnings in the second quarter 2008 excluded $22 million after-tax, or 1 cent per share, for merger integration costs. Adjusted earnings in the second quarter 2007 also excluded 1 cent per share for merger integration costs.

Investments Delivering New Growth

“Verizon continued to grow in all key strategic areas in the second quarter, despite the economic headwinds,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. “Recent investments in wireless spectrum and in our FiOS network will help drive future growth opportunities. We expect additional opportunities for FiOS growth as we add major cities, such as New York .

“Our second quarter results were on track with our business plan, and top- and bottom-line growth remained solid,” he said. “We remain focused on steady improvements in revenue growth and productivity that will increase profitability and cash flows and create future opportunities to enhance shareholder returns.”

Revenue Growth, Margin Expansion and Strong Operating Cash Flows

Verizon’s total operating revenues grew to $24.1 billion in the second quarter 2008. This is a 3.7 percent increase compared with the second quarter 2007, or an increase of 4.9 percent when adjusted for the spinoff of the Wireline segment’s non-strategic local exchange and related business assets in Maine , New Hampshire and Vermont (non-GAAP). Total operating expenses increased 2.4 percent to $19.6 billion, comparing second quarter 2008 with second quarter 2007.

Verizon’s operating income grew 9.6 percent to $4.5 billion, compared with the second quarter 2007. Adjusted operating income (non-GAAP) grew 10.9 percent. Operating income margin rose to 18.8 percent, compared with 17.8 percent in the second quarter 2007. On an adjusted basis, Verizon’s operating income margin rose to 19.0 percent, compared with 18.0 percent in the second quarter 2007.

Cash flows from continuing operations were $12.1 billion through the first six months of 2008, up 4.2 percent compared with the same period last year. Capital expenditures were $8.4 billion through the first six months of 2008, down more than $100 million over the same period last year.

Total debt was $43.1 billion, compared with $35.8 billion at the end of the first quarter 2008. In the second quarter, the company made final payments of approximately $8.5 billion for licenses won in the Federal Communications Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum auction and purchased $4.8 billion of Alltel Corp. debt in connection with the pending acquisition of Alltel.

Wireless Continues to Gain Share, Posts Record Low Churn

Verizon Wireless continued to lead the industry with strong, quality customer growth, record-low churn and the highest profitability. In the second quarter:

* Of the 1.5 million total net customer additions, essentially all were retail post-paid.
* Retail gross customer additions were strong, up 3.2 percent over the prior year.
* Total churn was industry-leading and down year over year at 1.12 percent, a record low for the company. Among the company’s retail post-paid customers, churn was even lower at 0.83 percent, also a record low.
* Wireless continued its double-digit revenue growth, with total revenues of $12.1 billion, up 11.8 percent year over year. Service revenues were $10.5 billion, up 11.6 percent year over year, driven by customer growth and demand for data services. ARPU levels (average monthly revenue per customer) increased year over year for the ninth consecutive quarter. Total service ARPU of $51.53 was up 0.9 percent year over year driven by total data ARPU, which was up 31.3 percent.
* Wireless operating income margin was 28.6 percent, the highest ever.
* EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 45.6 percent. (EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)

Significant Business Development Initiatives

Verizon Wireless, which expects the closing of the Rural Cellular acquisition soon, also launched or completed several significant business development initiatives in the second quarter:

* The company paid for the 700 MHz spectrum it gained in the FCC’s auction. The purchase includes a nationwide footprint the company will use to build its 4G LTE (fourth generation, Long Term Evolution) network in the 2010 timeframe.
* The company announced an agreement to purchase Alltel, with completion of the merger targeted for the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals.
* The company announced a five-year agreement with Qwest Communications International for Qwest to market and sell Verizon Wireless service beginning this summer.

Continued Growth in FiOS, Strategic Services

Verizon Wireline expanded penetration of FiOS services and continued to increase sales of enterprise strategic services. In the second quarter (with prior-period comparisons adjusted to reflect the impact of the previously mentioned spinoff):

* Sales penetration rates (percentage of potential customers who buy the service) increased for both FiOS Internet (available for sale to nearly 8.4 million premises) and FiOS TV (available for sale to 7.0 million premises). FiOS Internet penetration averaged 23.5 percent across all markets, up from 18.7 percent in last year’s second quarter. FiOS TV penetration averaged 19.7 percent across all markets, up from 13.3 percent.
* Verizon added 176,000 net new FiOS TV customers, for a total of nearly 1.4 million FiOS TV customers as of the end of the quarter.
* Verizon added 187,000 net new FiOS Internet customers. The company had nearly 2 million FiOS Internet customers at the end of the quarter, nearly doubling the number of FiOS Internet customers since the end of second quarter 2007. Verizon added its 2 millionth FiOS Internet customer earlier this month.
* Broadband and video revenues from consumer customers totaled more than $1.0 billion in the second quarter, representing year-over-year growth of 52.9 percent.
* Growing revenue from broadband and video services drove consumer ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes consumer markets served by the former MCI) to $63.76, a 10.4 percent increase compared with last year’s second quarter. The ARPU among FiOS customers was more than $130 per month.
* Verizon Business had total revenues of $5.3 billion, or growth of 0.9 percent compared with last year’s second quarter. This was Verizon Business’ seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year pro-forma revenue growth (non-GAAP, calculated as if Verizon and MCI had merged on Jan. 1, 2005). Global enterprise revenue, representing retail sales, increased 1.7 percent to $4.0 billion, compared with last year’s second quarter.
* Sales of strategic services — such as IP (Internet protocol), managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services — continued to drive growth at Verizon Business. These services generated $1.5 billion in revenue, up 18.7 percent from second quarter 2007.

Additional Highlights

Wireless

* The company has the most retail customers in the industry. At the end of the second quarter, 97 percent of the company’s base was retail (post-pay and pre-pay).
* Verizon Wireless continued to lead the industry in cost efficiency. Cash expense per customer (non-GAAP) was $28.02 in the second quarter 2008, an increase of 1.2 percent over the second quarter 2007 and a decrease of 0.1 percent from the first quarter 2008.
* Data revenues grew 45.3 percent over the prior year, contributing nearly $2.6 billion. The company had 49.6 million retail data customers in June (approximately three-quarters of its retail customer base), a 25.6 percent increase over the prior year.
* Building on the success of its first Open Development Initiative (ODI) conference held in March, Verizon Wireless during the second quarter certified the first device for use on its network under ODI. Provided by SupplyNet Communications, the device is a machine-to-machine wireless inventory telemetry system to monitor inventories at customer locations and send alerts when set levels are reached.
* The company continued to extend the reach of its nationwide wireless broadband network. This is the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G (third generation) network, and it was available to more than 256 million Americans by the end of the second quarter. More than 60 percent of the company’s retail customers — 40.5 million — had 3G broadband-capable devices at the end of the quarter.
* To continue to meet demand for broadband devices, Verizon Wireless launched the BlackBerry Curve 8330, the Moto Q 9c and the Palm Centro for business connectivity and productivity. The company also announced the availability of three new multimedia handsets by LG: the Dare, featuring an all-touch screen operation; the Decoy, the world’s first phone with a built-in detachable Bluetooth headset; and the Chocolate 3, the latest version of the iconic music phone. In addition, in the second quarter, the company launched the Glyde by Samsung, the Motorola w755 and the Nokia 6205 (The Dark Knight Edition).
* During the quarter, Verizon Wireless launched V CAST Music with Rhapsody, a monthly subscription service combining the company’s world-class mobile music service with Rhapsody’s leading desktop music solution, which delivers unlimited access to music on select wireless phones and players, and online on PCs, for $14.99 a month.
* During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received nearly 70 billion text messages and 1.4 billion picture/video messages. Customers also completed 36.5 million music and video downloads.

Wireline
* Wireline total operating revenues were $12.1 billion, a 1.8 percent decrease compared with the second quarter 2007. Wireline total operating expenses decreased 1.7 percent over the same period.
* Verizon gained final approval for the New York City video franchise in July, and the company today is announcing the sales launch of FiOS TV service in the city — as well as the availability of 100 high-definition FiOS TV channels in the New York metropolitan area. The New York City franchise covers 3 million premises, and Verizon already passes about 25 percent of these with fiber. About 2 million premises are in multiple dwelling units.
* Verizon’s broadband fiber-to-the-premises network, which delivers FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services, passed 11.0 million and 9.6 million premises, respectively, throughout the company’s entire service territory by the end of the quarter.
* Total broadband connections were 8.3 million, a net increase of 54,000 over the first quarter 2008. This includes a decrease of 133,000 DSL-based Verizon High Speed Internet connections, which was more than offset by the increase in FiOS Internet customers. The
* 8.3 million is an 11.5 percent year-over year increase, excluding broadband connections in 2007 in the three New England states that have since been spun off.
* Wireline data revenues — which now represent 41.8 percent of total wireline revenues — were $5.1 billion, an increase of 16.1 percent compared with the second quarter 2007. This includes revenues from consumer broadband services, wholesale data transport and Verizon Business data services.
* Verizon Business, which delivers integrated global solutions to large-business and government customers and operates the world’s most connected public IP network, again announced significant capability enhancements. These included expanded unified communications services for multinational companies; expanded global professional consulting services; enhanced optical capabilities for Ethernet networks; expanded enterprise mobility offerings in Asia-Pac and Canada ; and several additional managed security services.
* Verizon Business continued to expand its reach into high-growth, global markets, announcing that it had joined the Europe India Gateway submarine cable consortium, which will build a 9,000-mile high-speed submarine cable network from the United Kingdom to India. The company also unveiled plans to open an office in Dubai to further strengthen its Middle East operations, and it received approval to directly deliver advanced communications services in Mexico .
* Additional global network enhancements included turning up 1,940 route-miles of Ultra Long Haul network in Europe connecting London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels, as well as 804 additional U.S. route-miles; deploying new multiplexer technology in nine additional U.S. markets, enabling remote configuration and provisioning of bandwidth; and installing additional MPLS-based (multi protocol label switching) switches in 22 additional global business centers.
* New commercial customer agreements included Liz Claiborne Inc., Milliman Inc., Parsons Brinckerhoff, Standard Register and Western Union . In addition, Bühler became the first customer of the Swisscom/Verizon Business strategic alliance announced during the second quarter. Verizon Business also signed new contracts with several U.S. government agencies, including a 10-year, $678.5 million agreement under the Networx Universal program to deploy and manage a global IP network for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Didn’t get an iPhone today? Run back to the AT&T to store to get your sore legs a Palm Centro for $70. Why? So you have something to jam up Steve Jobs’ rear when you see him.

Do any of the CG readers have a mobile phone that isn’t black? I’ve never really concerned myself with the color of my mobile phone, but I hope to snag a white iPhone 3G this Friday just to keep my elitist façade intact. Heh.

Anyway, Palm is obviously banking on the success of the Centro because they’ve just announced a new color for the AT&T lineup that already has a white and black model. I’m not sure I’d call this new shade electric blue since it looks more baby blue, but I’m certainly not doing the marketing for Palm, now am I? Look for it this Friday at AT&T retail stores along with some back to school promotion that couldn’t possibly make it any cheaper than it already is, but it sounds like it.

I’ve been using Vudu for a few months now and it’s a pretty snazzy service. The remote is surprisingly ergonomic and the Vudu UI is put together quite well. You can read Doug’s review over yonder if you like. Today, Vudu announced that they’ve continued their expansion in Best Buy stores throughout California, Arizona and Illinois. A full listing of stores along with recently added rentals, movies available for purchase and upcoming titles have been added for your pleasure.

Best Buy Locations:

Chicago, IL 60620
Addison, IL 60101
Glendale, AZ 85308
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
San Jose, CA 95118
Chicago, IL 60614
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Phoenix, AZ 85016
Chula Vista, CA 91910
Chicago, IL 60614
Colma, CA 94014
Crestwood, IL 60445
DeKalb, IL 60115
Downers Grove, IL 60516
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
El Cajon, CA 92020
El Centro, CA 92243
Oakland, CA 94608
Encinitas, CA 92024
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
San Francisco, CA 94118
Gilroy, CA 95020
Phoenix, AZ 85085
Norridge, IL 60706
Countryside, IL 60525
Chicago, IL 60618
Lansing, IL 60438
Marin City, CA 94965
Marina, CA 93933
Melrose Park, IL 60160
Milpitas, CA 95035
San Diego, CA 92126
San Diego, CA 92108
Mountain View, CA 94043
Chicago, IL 60622
North Riverside, IL 60546
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Aurora, IL 60504
Oceanside, CA 92054
Oswego, IL 60543
Chula Vista, CA 91915
Phoenix, AZ 85032
Pinole, CA 95464
Prescott, AZ 86303
Geneva, IL 60134
South Elgin, IL 60177
Salinas, CA 93906
San Carlos, CA 94070
San Francisco, CA 94103
San Jose, CA 95125
San Marcos, CA 92069
San Rafael, CA 94901
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
San Jose, CA 95128
Santee, CA 92071
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Scottsdale, AZ 85250
Soquel, CA 95073
Chicago, IL 60607
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Tempe, AZ 85281
Phoenix, AZ 85053
Union City, CA 94587
Vallejo, CA 94591
West Dundee, IL 60118
Yuma, AZ 85365

NEW TO RENT

1. The Eye (HD)

2. Bone Snatcher

3. Untraceable

4. Rambo (HD & SD)

5. National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (HD)

6. Full Metal Jacket

7. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine

8. Interview with the Vampire

9. Glory Road

10. Falling Down

11. The Chronicles of Riddick (HD)

12. The Chronicles of Riddick, Unrated (HD)

13. Demolition Man

14. City of Angels

15. The Wedding Date

16. Happy Gilmore (HD)

17. Pitch Black, Unrated (HD)

18. Fire Down Below

19. Ghost Ship

20. Tremors

21. The Mummy Returns (HD)

22. The Cottage

23. Vertigo

24. Remember the Titans (HD)

25. Batman & Mr. Freeze, Subzero

26. The Chair (HD & SD)

27. Jonah, A VeggieTales Movie

28. The Air I Breathe

29. Lake Dead (HD)

30. You Belong to Me

31. Left For Dead (HD & SD)

32. Be Kind, Rewind

33. Rails & Ties

NEW TO OWN

1. Vantage Point

2. Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns

3. The Prestige

4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

5. Armed and Dangerous

6. Glory Road

7. Desperate Measures

8. Loser

9. Pearl Harbor

10. Bratz Passion 4 Fashion Diamondz

11. Bratz Starrin’ and Stylin’

12. Bratz Rock Angels

13. Bratz Kidz Fairy Tales

14. Will Penny

15. And Justice for All

16. Goin’ South

17. Waterhole #3

18. Matilda

19. Candyman

20. Islands in the Stream

21. Bad Company

22. Chuka

23. Five Card Stud

24. Rustlers’ Rhapsody

25. Blue

26. Vertigo

27. The Tin Star

28. Arrowhead

29. Nevada Smith

30. Copper Canyon

31. Three Violent People

32. The Lonely Man

33. Branded

34. Johnny Reno

35. Player 5150

Coming Soon on VUDU…

The Royal Tenenbaums (to own July 15)

High Fidelity (to own July 15)

Step Up 2 (to own July 15)

College Roadtrip (to own July 15)

The Bank Job (to own July 15)

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins (SD & HD) (to rent July 16)

Caramel HD (to Rent July 16)

21 (to own July 22)

Definitely, Maybe (HD) (to rent July 23)

Doomsday (to own July 29)

Doomsday Unrated (to own July 29)

Harold & Kumar, Escape from Guantanamo Bay (to rent or own July 29)

Harold & Kumar, Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Unrated (to rent or own July 29)

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (HD) (to rent July 30)

Keep it up, Palm, but see if you can’t up the cool factor on the Treos a little bit.

By now you’re all familiar with the Palm Centro, so I’ll save all of you from having to read through a list of specs again. Today, Palm announced that an unlocked GSM version of the dainty smartphone is available on the Palm site for $299. Available for free beginning tomorrow for Palm Centro owners is Google Maps for mobile with My Location, which basically approximates your location on the map when you fire it up.

Full release after the jump.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 23, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) today announced that the popular Palm(R) Centro(TM) smartphone is now available unlocked for U.S. customers. Now offered on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon Wireless – the nation’s three largest carriers – and in an unlocked GSM version, Centro gives U.S. customers the ability to choose the mobile phone that’s right for them.(1) Palm also announced that Google(TM) Maps for mobile with My Location on Centro is available for Centro starting tomorrow, giving customers faster access to local maps and driving directions.(2)

The unlocked Palm Centro retains the smartphone’s compact, modern design and is dressed in a new white color with grey accents. Centro offers customers more choices to stay in touch with friends, family and co-workers by using voice, text messaging, email or the web. Also available in 25 countries worldwide, Centro is Palm’s smallest and lightest smartphone to date.

Google Maps for mobile with My Location makes it easier and faster for Centro customers to get mapping and direction information by approximating the user’s current location on the map. This saves time and keystrokes for people trying to find where they are, what’s around them, and how to get there.

In addition to My Location, Google Maps offers:

– Comprehensive information on traffic conditions in more than 30 U.S. major metropolitan areas, and partial information in many others;

– Detailed driving directions with traffic estimates to avoid congestions;

– One-touch recall of favorite locations and routes;

– Integrated search results for business locations, including directions and contact information;

– Ability to scan and drag maps using Centro’s touch screen for a PC-like experience; and

– Satellite and aerial views.

Pricing and Availability

The unlocked Centro smartphone is available online at http://www.palm.com/centro for $299.

Google Maps for mobile with My Location will be available tomorrow free of charge for Palm Centro smartphones at http://www.google.com/gmm. Please check the site for details on the download process and carrier availability.