Having brought you previous hands-on shots of HP Veer 4G at MWC 2011, we now have the news that the diminutive webOS handset will be launching as an AT&T exclusive on 15 May in the US.

HP, having taken over Palm, has launched a handset that brings together some other features of Palm models of the past, such as the familiar sliding QWERTY action and same 2.6-inch screen as the Palm Pixi.

The HP Veer is a full-on smartphone packing webOS 2.1, a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 800-MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of on-board storage, and is a HSPA+. It also has Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, plus an accelerometer, and proximity and light sensors.

There's also a 5-megapixel camera round the back with extended depth of field, geotagging, and video capture.

So for its size, as HP put it: "the size of a credit card and no thicker than a deck of cards", the Veer looks to be a pretty meaty proposition.

But what about the apps? As with any mobile device the ability to add on software is an absolute must for it to be a success. Well, apparently, "thousands of apps are available at your fingertips in the redesigned webOS App Catalog - social networking, health and fitness, productivity, finance, games - you name it."

This new App Catalog will also enable you to purchase using carrier billing, which will mean any outstanding balance will be added to the cost of your monthly bill - handy, yes but it certainly sounds dangerous if you don't keep it in check.

We got in touch with HP to find out about UK availability and we received the following statement: "Unfortunately we still don’t have any details on the UK launch yet so are unable to help you with the availability on the Veer at the moment."

As mentioned you lucky folks in the US can get your mits on the new HP Veer 4G come 15 May, and it'll set you back $99 on a 2-year contract.