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Motorola, the word's number two mobile phone company, has introduced the Q Pro, the update to its popular smartphone we first heard about back in October.

Unfortunately, the upgrade appears to rest on an enhanced software package rather than an update to the physical specifications of the slim .45-inch (11.5 millimeter) original Q model - currently available from Verizon and Sprint in the U.S.

That's not quite true, actually. The Q Pro package does add an extended battery to the package. There's also a vehicle power adapter, headset and the ability to disable the smartphone’s camera.

Having a version of the Q available with the camera disabled should help Motorola with security conscious enterprises.

As with some recent standard Q models, the Q Pro features black rather than silver casing.

The most significant change to the Pro edition is the inclusion of the MOTOPRO Mobility Suite with the smartphone. The suite is a mobile application, security and device management platform for the enterprise. It includes support for VPNs, encryption, firewall, authentication, and intrusion detection.

Q Pro users can also edit Word documents - not a feature generally available with Windows Mobile Smartphones - in addition to viewing Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files.

Motorola said in its announcement that the Q Pro is available now, but there's nothing that states what carrier(s) are offering the smartphone, or for how much.

The Motorola Q Pro measures the same compact 4.6 x 2.5 x 0.45 inches as a standard Q. Additional features include a 320 x 240-pixel screen - not touch because it is a Windows Mobile Smartphone and not a Pocket PC Phone - dual stereo speakers, Bluetooth 1.2 for personal area networking (connecting to headsets, printers) and a 1.3 megapixel camera with photo lighting for picture and video.

There's a miniSD slot for storage expansion (plus a 512 MB card), 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB of Flash ROM, as well as a 5-way navigation button and thumb-wheel.

It also supports Microsoft-based push e-mail.

For more on the Motorola Q, see our review.