Motorola announces its Pro smartphone

US HANDSET MAKER Motorola has announced the Pro, a smartphone for business use that runs Android 2.2.

The handset, which supports Flash 10.1, has a 1GHz processor with 2GB of memory, a QWERTY keyboard, a multi-touch 3.1-inch display, a 5MP camera with dual LED flash and an expandable external SD card memory with up to 32GB.

It has Quickoffice pre-loaded and Corporate Sync, Gmail and POP3/IMAP embedded email support. It can also provide 3G mobile hotspot support for up to five other WiFi enabled devices including laptops.

The announcement entitled "Motorola Pro comes to Europe" didn't mention a launch date but Motorola told The INQUIRER, "you can be confident it will launch this year".

As a business handset the smartphone also comes with Authentec IPSec multi-headed VPN integration, the ability to remotely wipe the device and its SD card, and supports device and SD card encryption.

A desktop dock for the Pro is sold separately, which acts as a charging station and provides additional features including a clock with an alarm, access to local weather and news, and the ability to play music or a picture slide show. µ