Palm ends its black-and-white period

For years Palm Inc. has manufactured all of its hand-held PDAs, smartphones and other devices in a traditional black, white and gray. In response to the rainbow of colors that many other mobile phone and hand-held device manufacturers have been introducing, Palm is launching color versions of its new Treo 680 smartphone.

However, there’s a catch. If consumers wish to purchase a crimson, copper, arctic or graphite Palm smartphone, they won’t find them in stores. The colorful mobile phones and organizers initially will be available for purchase only on the company’s e-commerce site.

With the introduction of the Palm Treo 680, the company is targeting new users in the rapidly growing smartphone and feature-phone markets—market research firm In-Stat estimates that 25% of all wireless handsets worldwide will be smartphones by 2011, says Ed Colligan, president and CEO of Palm, No. 80 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites.

Palm will announce the exact date and price of the new color phones in the weeks ahead.