Palm Taps Inventec to Manufacture Centro

Digitimes is citing a source in the Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times that claims Palm has made a deal with Taiwan-based Inventec Appliances to produce the upcoming Palm Centro smartphone with volume shipments to begin soon.

The report goes on to state the Centro will feature a CDMA2000 1x EV-DO radio. Palm has previously confirmed that the Centro will debut on Sprint in the US sometime this fall. It sports a slimmer design and still retains the touch-screen and full keyboard. Prior rumor reports mention an October 14th release and a $99 price point for the new model.

The Digitimes report also claims that Palm has also subcontracted a separate new CDMA2000 smartphone to be launched in 2008 to Chi Mei Communication Systems (CMCS) on an ODM basis.