Former PDA heavyweight Palm, on Monday announced its Treo 680 smartphone, running on the Palm OS platform.

The Treo 680 is the fourth smartphone launched by Palm this year and follows the 750v, the firm’s business-oriented mobile for Europe, running Windows Mobile 5.0 OS.

The 680 is available in the UK for £299. Additionally, retail and distribution partners including Expansys will begin selling the Treo 680 smartphone from Monday.

The 680 enables synch email, web browsing and messaging.

The latest EMEA research from Canalys shows that year-on-year market growth for converged smart mobile devices (smart phones and wireless handhelds) in Q1 and Q2 2006 was 26 per cent. Canalys forecasts that annual shipments will exceed 77 million units by 2009 as compared to the 26.5 million units that shipped from Q4 2005 till Q3 2006 inclusive.

Editor’s note
At first glance, the 680 looks and behaves a lot like Sony Ericsson’s P910i – minus the flip – but must be congratulated on the Palm OS which still looks good and is as easy to use as ever.

Telecoms.com is looking at a 680 now and a full review will follow. Shame there’s no wifi…