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Camera phones are viewed with an increasingly jaundiced eye by corporate gatekeepers. They simply make it too easy for employees to share with others information that the enterprise would prefer to keep private. That's why many smartphones today are available with or without a shooter.

Today, you can add Palm's newest Palm OS smartphone, the Treo 680, to that list. Brighthand points out a footnote on Palm's Treo 680 page that says, "Camera/camcorder not included on all models." Folks have reported ordering a camera-less version of this smartphone as well.

While there doesn't seem to be a way to order a Treo 680 sans camera on Palm's Web site, you can do so by phone, at 800-881-7256.

Palm targets the Treo 680, available from Cingular in the U.S., at consumers the company defines as 'mobile accomplishers'—college-educated cell phone owners who want to strike a balance between work and personal lives by making the move up to a smartphone.

Even so, at launch the Treo 680 was the least expensive Palm smartphone yet. It costs $200 with a two-year contract and an unlimited Cingular PDA Connect data plan, which goes for $44.99 per month. That's far less than the Windows Mobile-based Treo 750 and Treo 700wx or the Palm OS Treo 700p.

One of the areas Palm cut corners to bring the Treo 680’s price down was by limiting the camera to only a VGA resolution (.3 megapixels)—far lower in resolution than what smartphone users of today are used to. Your rarely see anything below 1.3 megapixels nowadays. And there are some that even offer several megapixel cameras.

But then again, a camera is a camera. And if you work in an environment where they're discouraged or outright banned, but want to get Palm's newest Palm OS smartphone for GSM networks, then at least it appears you have an option.

A possible reason the camera-less Treo 680 isn’t heavily advertised could be because carriers earn extra income from customers messaging pictures taken with camera phones over their networks.

For more on the Treo 680, see our review.