While a carrier release doesn’t merit the hype of, say, the iPhone 2…it is a welcome relief that Palm has announced that the Centro will be available on the Verizon Wireless network for just $99 (on contract) beginning tomorrow (June 13).

The addition of Centro to the Verizon network expands Palm’s reach to one of the nation’s largest carriers (>67M customers) and offers additional choice and flexibility. No word yet on when the Centro will be made available to existing Alltel customers being brought into the Verizon family, or if Verizon will continue to allow Alltel to cripple Palm’s ROM’s.

Since its debut in September 2007, the Palm Centro has steadily gained in popularity selling over one million Centro smartphones and moving rapidly to 2M. The Centro’s popularity has allowed Palm smartphone market shares to increase to 13.4% from 7.9% quarter over quarter (IDC, CQ1 2008). It is also a rarity in the cellphone industry being offered on three of the four major US carriers.

Filed under: Treo and Palm news