Treo phone unveiled with Palm software

Mon May 15, 6:47 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Palm (Nasdaq:PALM) on Monday introduced the first Treo phone with a high-speed wireless Web link running the Palm operating system called the 700p.

Earlier this year Palm released a high-speed wireless phone run on software from rival Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), which is seeing signs of success on wireless.

Verizon Wireless said it would start selling the phone in the next few weeks. It would not comment on pricing, but the company currently sells another Treo product the 700w for $399.99 to customers that sign up for a two year service.

The 700p will be e-mail capable. Rivals in the market for phones that can send and receive e-mail include Research In Motion Ltd. (Toronto:RIM.TO). Palm said its software is in 3 million cellphones.

The second and third biggest U.S. cellphone service providers Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), and Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) plan to sell the new Treo phone Palm said.

Sprint was not immediately available to comment.