Sprint announced Wednesday that the Palm Treo Pro (not to be confused with the Palm Pre) will be released on March 15 with a two-year contract.

With the new Treo Pro release, Palm is looking to gain some momentum in the enterprise smartphone market over the likes of BlackBerry maker RIM.

The Windows Mobile 6.1 device will be available online and in retail stores on that date and will go for $199.99. This price is after rebates and adding an Everything Plan with data or $30 per month or higher data plan. You will also be able to purchase the smartphone through Palm on March 16.

The Palm Treo Pro was designed with the enterprise professional's full life in mind, which means a mix of enterprise and lifestyle features, as well as the reliability and manageability IT departments require, according to a March 4 statement from Palm announcing the availability.

The smartphone has integrated GPS and will work with Sprint Navigation for real-time turn-by-turn directions. Other features include a 2.5-inch, 320x320-pixel resolution touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, and a 2-megapixel camera.

Palm also announced that, because it will periodically update software features, free of charge, to customers of its Palm webOS products, which includes the Palm Pre, it will recognize the revenues and cost of revenues associated with those products on a straight-line basis over their estimated 24-month economic life.

Sprint Electronics