Following its annoucement last month that it is working on a GSM/UTMS Treo with carrier-giant Vodafone for the European market, Palm recently revealed the upcoming device will officially be introduced early next month. The company even gave an official date.

A Palm spokeswoman told Reuters, "The announcement is going to be made in the UK on September 12, and we will give all the details then but at the moment all we are saying is that it will be out before the end of the year."

Analysts point out a release date that month or the next is essential if Palm wants cash in on the holiday season. Otherwise they may lose out on all important shelf space to competitors, as retailers would have made their final decisions on what to stock after that period.

Treos long ago eclipsed PDAs as the Palm's chief money maker. But competition from the likes of RIM, Nokia, and HTC have put pressure on the company to innovate and to finally release a GSM/UTMS version of the smartphone for worldwide consumption, not to mention for the largest U.S. carrier, Cingular wireless.

Palm's most recent Treos, the 700w and 700p, are only available from CDMA/EV-DO operators Verizon and Sprint in the this country.

Although Palm still hasn't revealed very many details about the new Windows Mobile 5.0 Treo (which looks like other models expect it lacks an antenna), including the name, it is rumored to be called the Treo 750v.

Scuttlebutt and leaked pictures recently placed the Pocket PC Phone as landing later on on the Cingular network as well.

Initial Vodafone launch countries include the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and Netherlands before the end of the year, after which the operator plans to expand deployment to other regions.

It is still not known if the 750 version of the Treo will be the first to integrate Wi-Fi, as previously rumored but not indicated in Palm and Vodafone’s joint preannouncement . Last month Palm finally committed to putting the popular wireless technology into its smartphones, something most of its competitors do already.

Supposedly the Treo 750 has a 1.3 megapixel camera and a SD slot, convienient if it doesn't integrate Wi-Fi.

Vodafone has posted a Web page devoted to the upcoming smartphone. The site doesn't reveal much of anything about the new Treo that isn't known already, but it does say the device is coming soon and allows interested parties to register to be notified when the new Treo becomes available.