Brazilian customers now have another choice when selecting which smartphone to buy: Palm’s Treo 680, introduced to that market on Monday. The 680 is a quad-band world phone that runs on Palm OS.

 

Introduced to the U.S. market in November (directly from Palm.com) and Singapore in November (from service provider SingTel Ltd), includes all advanced features one would expect of a smartphone: e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts, touch screen.

 

Treo 680 is being made available in Brazil through a partnership with mobile phone operator Claro, which was founded in 2003 and now serves more than 2,300 cities. It has a presence in more than 150 countries through roaming agreements. The company is a subsidiary of mobile telephony group America Movil.

 

In its announcement about this latest launch, Palm on Monday said that making Treo 680 available in Brazil is part of its strategy to continue growing its presence in rapidly growing markets. That strategy was seen in the aforementioned Singapore launch of the smartphone.

 

Also this winter, Palm formed partnerships with online, spoken entertainment provider Audible (downloads of audio books and related material now available on Treo 680) and travel services provider MobileMate (weather forecasts, satellite imagery, airline flight data, and related services now available on Treo 680).

 

Sunnvale, California-based Palm, Inc., manufacturers mobile products, including the Treo series of smartphones, and handheld computers. It also offers related software, services and accessories. Palm’s products are sold online, at retail stores, and through the company’s network of resellers and wireless operators.

 

In the U.S., Palm Treo 680 retails for $399, and is also available for as low as $199 through an AT&T (News - Alert) (Cingular) service plan.