Over the next several months, HTC will roll out its 'Kaiser' Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone (known as a Pocket PC Phone under Windows Mobile 5) in Europe as the TyTN II. The original design manufacturer will release it itself and through carriers T-Mobile, Telefonica Group and Vodafone.

Although this smartphone is available for pre-order through an importer in the U.S.—for use on GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile's networks—it is likely AT&T will soon deliver a version of this device, possibly as soon as the next week or two, as the Tilt. To replace the similar but aging AT&T 8525 Pocket PC Phone, also built by HTC.

It is rumored AT&T will sell the Tilt for $500 with a 2-year agreement. The FCC approved this smartphone for release in the U.S. late last month.

While the AT&T Tilt/TyTN II should look a lot like its predecessor—tablet design, full slider keyboard, 2.8-inch 240 x 320 pixel resolution touch display—there will be a number of improvements in addition to the upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 from version 5.

For example, when you slide the keyboard out from underneath the screen, you'll be able to tilt the screen up laptop style (see top image).

The quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE smartphone also features support for UMTS/HSDPA 3G networking, in addition to GPS, a 3-megapixel camera, 400MHZ CPU, a Windows Mobile 6-friendly 128MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, and a high-capacity 1500mAH battery.