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The big selling point, claims Palm, is push email. It quotes research that barely 2 per cent of business email accounts are accessed by mobile devices - suggesting a gap in the market.

It's a gap not unknown to the likes of Research in Motion, whose BlackBerry device already leads the way in Europe. Then there's Good Technology which supports both Windows and Palm, although not Symbian, and works with Exchange and Lotus messaging platforms.

This is where Microsoft comes in though. It

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made push email a free upgrade earlier this year via the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for Windows Mobile 5.0 available through a number of carriers. In the UK this means Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

The Palm device will run on Vodafone's 3G/UMTS network in a number of European countries, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Netherlands and be available before the end of the year.

There's a certain expediency to Palm getting a new Treo out in Europe. Its current 650 model doesn't meet the latest EU regs on hazardous substances, so the only Treo presence in the territory will be existing stocks until the new product ships.

'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 VP 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.'