On Wednesday, Palm Inc. made a rather surprising announcement when company officials informed the public on their plans to launch a new smartphone sometime this fall. The device, made especially for business people, is not going to be backed up by a U.S. carrier.

The handset, called Treo Pro, is actually a thinner, more attractive version of the Treo 800w, currently commercialized through Sprint Nextel Corp. It is to be sold in Europe by Vodafone Group PLC and O2, and by Telstra in Australia. U.S. residents will be given the chance to purchase a $549 unlocked version of the phone that will be compatible with AT&T’s broadband network.

Brodie Keast, Palm's senior vice president of marketing, while talking about the unlocked version, said the company has been shown a great deal of interest from large enterprise customers. The main advantage of unlocked handsets is that users don’t have to pay expensive roaming fees when travelling around and can simply switch to a local provider.

Just like the Treo 800w, the upcoming smartphone will be running on newest edition of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile software.

The Treo Pro will come with built-in Wi-Fi and will feature GPS capabilities, enabling users to access location based services. Moreover, it will include a 2 megapixel camera, as well as a microSD memory card slot, which will provide users with a satisfactory storage unit. As it also includes Bluetooth 2.0, it will be quite useful for rapid close-range file transfers.