Although Sprint released the HTC Touch Pro a week ago, the sister-smartphone to the Touch Diamond wasn't easy to find due to limited availability. This is no longer true.

The carrier today greatly expanded distribution of the Touch Pro, launching the handset on its web site and in far more Sprint Store location. The Windows Mobile 6.1-run Touch Pro can be had for $300 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Like the Touch Diamond, the Touch Pro sports a enhanced edition of the HTC's touch screen interface, which runs on top of Windows Mobile. Called TouchFLO 3D, the interface is animated to provide quicker and easier access services and features.

The HTC Touch Pro is a business-focused smartphone—like Sprint's older HTC Mogul model, which it will likely replace. It includes a five-row, slide-out QWERTY keyboard (the Touch Diamond does not), expandable storage capabilities with a microSD card slot (1 GB card included) and a business card scanner application. The Touch Pro integrates 288MB of RAM and 512MB of Flash ROM.

It measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.70 inches and weighs 5.3 ounces.

The Touch Pro includes an Opera-based web browser and a version of YouTube, as well as an edition of Google Maps that integrates with the smartphone's integrated GPS. Turn the HTC Touch Pro horizontal from vertical and, like the iPhone, the browser will do the same.

It sports a powerful 528 MHz processor, hi-res, 2.8-inch VGA (640 x 320 pixel) resolution touch display and 3.2 megapixel camera. The smartphone also integrates Bluetooth 2.0 with support for wireless stereo headsets, Wi-Fi, and support for Sprint's high-speed Ev-DO Rev. A data network.

This smartphones 1350 mAh battery is supposed to deliver up to 250 minutes of talk time.

Rumor has it AT&T will release a variation of on the Touch Pro, possibly as the Fuze, over the next few weeks. Its current Tilt model is based on the same HTC smartphone as Sprint's Mogul.

In related news, HTC announced early last month on its Twitter feed that the most advanced model in its Touch smartphone series, the Touch HD, would not be making it stateside.

The feed said: "sad news, US. we looked into it- by the time we could bring Touch HD to the states, it would be old news." HTC counterbalanced this disappointing news somewhat by adding "we do have other cool stuff coming."

The outcry of disappointment regarding no Touch HD for the U.S. was loud and clear. Later on in its Twitter feed, HTC added "Thank you all for expressing your desire for the HD. really! now the US management know there's a grassroots demand for high end HTCs here."