Palm Announces Partnering with Vodafone for Next Generation Treo

The rumors have been circulating for a while now, and finally some confirmation has come directly from Palm. In a press release, Palm stated they were partnering with Vodafone in Europe to release their much anticipated GSM Treo smartphone, running Windows Mobile 5.

Being called at one time The Hollywood, Lowrider, and more recently Nitro and Lennon, the new phone (Groovy2 the official code name) will be released in September in Europe, filling the void left by the Treo 650 being pulled from the European market. A US release is expected later, perhaps as early as October.

"Partnering with Vodafone, a world-class mobile operator, is a significant step to accelerate our geographic expansion and serve more European customers," said John Hartnett, Palm senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer relations. "This collaboration will provide a powerful tool for enterprise customers that delivers on the Palm promise of ease of use and lets mobile professionals be fully productive away from the office."

This seems to indicate that full Microsoft Push Technology will be available in the phones straight off the bat. Other sources state the antenna-less design will be sporting a 412 MHz XScale Processor and 128 Meg of memory. A picture has even leaked out onto the net widely purported to show the actual model, although we cannot see the keyboard (it is there).

More information and specifications will be forthcoming from Palm as the release date approaches.