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Research In Motion has done just fine without a BlackBerry with touch screen. Now it's Palm's turn to give it a try.

As expected, Palm's European division today introduced the Treo 500v, the company's first smartphone without touch input. Like past Treos, it'll still include QWERTY thumb-keyboard, however.

Carrier-giant Vodafone will start rolling out the new Windows Mobile 6 Standard Treo across Europe—starting with Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the UK—as well as South Africa on October 1st in two colors – Charcoal Grey and Glacier White, better known as black and white to us regular folks.

Although pricing hasn't been unveiled yet, Palm's head of Global Markets and Windows Business Unit John Hartnett said the new smartphone will be priced "to enable a broader audience to experience the internet and e-mail on the go."

And with Vodafone's Global Terminals Director Jens Schulte-Bockum adding, "we are confident the Palm Treo 500v will appeal to the growing group of consumers looking for the same functionality and ease of use our business customers continue to enjoy from this type of premium device,” it becomes obvious this Treo is not just targeted at the usual suspects, mobile professionals.

Palm, it seems, would like to attract those who would otherwise consider devices like the Samsung BlackJacks, T-Mobile Dashes and Motorola Qs of the world—all tablet shaped with QWERTY keyboard and no touch screen like the Treo 500v. Consumers and businesses alike find these Windows Mobile smartphones attractive.

Expect Vodafone and Palm to price the Treo 500v accordingly. That is relatively low.

Specs
The tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM Treo 500v is 3G enabled with support for video streaming, but it tops out at UMTS, the slower prelude to the much faster HSDPA cellular-wireless data standard. You can use the new Treo as a modem to access the Internet and corporate network through support for dial-up-networking over a 3G connection.

It's got 256MB of internal memory, 150MB of which is available to the user, and the ever-more common microSD slot for adding additional storage.

There's also a 2 megapixel camera for picture and video and Bluetooth 2.0 to wirelessly connect to peripherals like headsets and car kits. Its display runs at a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA) and supports 65,000 colors.

Palm promises the removable 1200mAh, lithium-ion battery will provide up to 4.5 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time.

Although the Treo 500v is, at 0.65 x 2.4 x 4.3 inches (16.5 x 61.5 x 110 millimeters), the thinnest and most compact Treo yet—25 percent skinnier than the Treo 750v (rolled out by Vodafone last year)—there are competitors’ smartphone models that are even thinner. It weighs 4.2 ounces (120 grams).

Of course, as a Windows Mobile device the new Treo includes mobile versions of Microsoft Outlook, Office, Windows Live, Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, as well as a full compliment of personal information management applications.

It supports Microsoft Direct Push technology in an Exchange environment and the automatic delivery of messages from Web-based e-mail services like Hotmail/MSN, Yahoo!, and Gmail.

The Treo 500v also provides direct access to the carrier's Vodafone live! news, sports, and entertainment service.

It is about time Palm shook things up a little and widened its target market with a smaller smartphone, especially for Europe where its previous Treo models are considered bulky and not very fashionable. This is particularly important if it is going to crack the consumer market. Maybe next time we’ll see something that deviates even further away from Palm’s traditional designs.

Also, when Sprint and Palm officially introduce Centro, a new Palm OS smartphone for the mobile operator's CDMA/EV-DO network, in the near future, expect it to look a lot like the Treo 500v.