The Palm Centro showed up in full-page newspaper ads in southern South America last week, marking the smartphone's arrival, acccording to The Inquirer.

The Inquirer reported:

A month ago, the Centro was launched in Colombia with operators Movistar and Comcel. In Mexico, the Centro is being offered by Telcel and Movistar. Negotiations in Argentina are still in the works so Palm's local branch hasn't yet announced any operator deals and discounted prices…

The Centro is sold as what we call a 'smartphone in disguise,' because the ads target Generation-X users who don't necessarily buy one to keep to-do lists or use the PIM apps, and plenty of whom might not have ever used a PDA before. As such, the ads highlight the phone's 'social' features like messaging friends, doing the occasional web browsing and looking up directions with Google Maps, in addition to more individual features like playing music and videos.

South American Centros are all GSM, in black, red, blue, or white – different colors for various countries and carriers. The phones aren't cheap, either - two or three times the same models' prices in the U.S.

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