It was high time for Palm to make a high-end comeback from last year’s Centro, and regain the interest of business users. It wasn’t exactly a good financial year for Palm, and they really needed to make a strong comeback, especially since the smartphone market is as competitive as it gets.

The Sunnyvale company introduced the Treo Pro, a smartphone intended for businesses that want to simplify their IT infrastructures and lower costs, as well as for users who want to be in charge of their professional lives.

Treo Pro runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and combines e-mail, Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities with a design fit for business professionals.

“Businesses want the control and savings that Windows Mobile affords, in an innovative and elegant package that keeps their users happy,“ said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer Palm Inc. “Everything about Treo Pro – from the hardware design to the packaging and accessories – embodies the elegant and simplified end-to-end experience that our customers expect from Palm.”

Treo Pro offers a high-resolution touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a removable battery that supports up to five hours of talk time. In addition to that, Treo Pro comes with a one-touch Wi-Fi button, offers Web search capabilities directly from the Today screen, has a ringer switch that silences the device immediately, has a new voicemail indicator, as well as dedicated email and calendar buttons.

Palm also presented the advantages of using the Windows Mobile 6.1 solution: the Microsoft Direct Push Technology which gives users up-to-date email, contacts and calendar; the Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008, which delivers increased security, easy smartphone management and access to information on the corporate network.

In addition to that, there are thousands of available applications for Windows Mobile, ready to optimize any business experience, an integrated GPS, and a familiar Windows experience, with built-in Internet Explorer Mobile, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF compatibility.

Vodafone and O2 will bring the Treo Pro to Europe in September, for EUR 399 with subscription, Telstra will be the official dealer for Australia (free or with contract), while in the United States, the Treo Pro will be available as of this fall through the Palm online store, as well as Internet, retail and  enterprise resellers for a suggested retail price of $549.