For people who are ready to move up to a full-featured mobile phone that includes everything needed to stay organized, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) has announced the availability of the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 680 smartphone, a GSM/GPRS/EDGE quad-band world phone, on Rogers Wireless, Canada’s largest integrated wireless voice and data network.

Customers will find the Treo 680 smartphone easy to use, slim and compact, yet packed full of features beyond its stellar phone capability, such as email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more. Palm believes this product will appeal to price-sensitive feature-phone owners who want a more capable mobile-computing device.

“The Treo 680 is the smartphone for everyone. It’s small, sleek, fast and is available in four fun colors on the Palm Canada online store,” said Michael Moskowitz, vice president, Americas International, Palm, Inc. “It’s a great phone design for messaging and email, and provides users easy and fast access to the Internet and to their favorite music and pictures. The Treo 680 makes it easy for people to balance their business and personal lives while on the go.”

“As Canada’s leading wireless carrier, operating on Canada’s only GSM network, we are proud to offer our customers leading-edge mobile devices like the Palm Treo 680. Email availability on a stylish, thin form factor will make the Treo 680 particularly appealing to small and medium-size businesses by enabling them to save time by having access to outstanding mobile innovation and email connectivity,” said John Boynton, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Rogers Wireless.

With the introduction of the Palm OS(R) based Treo 680 smartphone, Palm is targeting new users in the rapidly growing smartphone and feature-phone markets. Market research firm In-Stat, estimates that 25 per cent of all wireless handsets worldwide will be smartphones by 2011. Research conducted by Palm suggests a substantial population of feature-phone users have not purchased smartphones, fearing they were too expensive and too difficult to use. The Treo 680 will offer an affordable, simple and fun way to get started and stay connected.

The Palm(R) Treo 700wx smartphone running Windows Mobile(R) 5.0 is now available on Bell Canada’s high-speed mobile network (1xEv-DO).

The Treo 700wx combines all the functionality and ease of use for which Treo smartphones are known, with the power and security of Windows Mobile favored by many businesses. Today’s announcement marks the availability of the first Windows Mobile-based Treo smartphone on the Bell Canada high-speed mobile network, giving its customer base more choices and complementing the Treo 650 smartphone running on the Palm OS(R) platform.

“Palm’s goal is to give our customers more choice to satisfy the growing demands of the mobile work force,” said Michael Moskowitz, vice president, Americas International, Palm, Inc. “The Palm user experience combined with ready access to Microsoft’s world-class email solutions gives mobile professionals a competitive edge and helps to extend Palm’s reach into the enterprise market.”

“Palm Treo smartphones continue to offer our clients innovation, ease of use and functionality in a stylish form factor,” said Christopher Shannon, general manager, wireless products and services, Bell Canada. “For clients who prefer to have Microsoft’s Windows(R) operating system applied across their corporate computing assets, the new Treo 700wx gives users a convenient way to access their business-critical applications, email messaging and collaboration tools for their mobile office and business on-the-go needs.”

“The Palm Treo 700wx powered by Windows Mobile enables Canadian businesses to support an increasingly mobile work force by delivering the tools, technologies and platform that help them communicate, collaborate and work effectively on the go,” said Phil Sorgen, president, Microsoft Canada. “Microsoft and valued partners like Palm allow businesses to leverage existing infrastructure and scale deployments to fit their needs today and tomorrow.”

Key Productivity Features

The Treo 700wx provides the same great world-class Treo experience and ease of use that customers expect, as well as the following key features:

– Support for Email on the Go: Windows Mobile Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP), which includes Direct Push Technology, native S/MIME support, certificate-based authentication to all Exchange data, and remote and local device wipe, is available out-of-the-box giving smartphone users fast, automatic wireless updates of their email, calendar items, contacts and tasks. The Treo 700wx smartphone also supports Good(TM) Mobile Messaging and Good Mobile Defense for robust security and fleet management, giving users support for web-enabled enterprise systems, including sales force automation (SFA), customer relationship management (CRM) and corporate intranets.

– Built-in Dial-up Networking (DUN) Capabilities: Treo 700wx smartphone users can take advantage of broadbandlike download speeds on their laptop computers by using the new smartphone as a wireless modem via USB technology. This out-of-the-box functionality offers an alternative to Wi-Fi, enabling users to access a high-speed connection in coffee shops, airports or hotels.

Additional Treo 700wx Features and Benefits

– Device User’s Guide — customers can view the full User’s Guide (located in the Quick Tour and My Treo sections) right from their device, providing convenient access to tips, troubleshooting techniques and how-to instructions;

– 1.3-megapixel camera to shoot crisp, clear digital images and videos;

– 64MB RAM for program execution;

– Integrated Bluetooth(R) 1.2 wireless technology for communicating with compatible headsets, car kits, computers and printers equipped with Bluetooth technology;

– Removable battery and non-volatile memory;

– Expansion-card slot (SD, SDIO, and MultiMediaCard compatible); and

– 240×240 transflective (TFT) screen

Skype upped the ante in the internet telephony market yesterday, with the announcement that all US and Canadian users can call traditional landlines and mobiles in the US and Canada for free.

Previously, Skype users in both countries were required to pay for Skype calls to traditional telephones, but users in both countries can now make free SkypeOut calls to the two North American countries until the end of the year.

Skype anticipates the move will expand its increasing penetration in North America and solidify its position in the market.

“Millions of consumers around the world are flocking to Skype every month, and we believe free SkypeOut calling will rapidly accelerate Skype adoption in the US and Canada,” said Henry Gomez, general manager, Skype North America.

Competition in the Voice over IP (VoIP) space is heating up. US carrier Verizon Communications last week slashed the price of its VoIP offering by $5, taking it toe to toe with IP telephony provider Vonage.

Verizon’s VoiceWing broadband service now costs $24.95 per month, the same price Vonage is charging for its Premium Unlimited plan.

Last week, Skype released a new beta version of its software that adds new features including: SMS; simplified dialing; payments in Skype; Outlook contact integration; call quality management; simplified registration; shared contact groups; and improved conference calling.

Skype notched up 100 million registered users worldwide in early May.