Handhelds looming on the horizon
Pocket PC handhelds
HP Jornada 928
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Hewlett-Packard
At this year's 3GSM World Congress Conference in Cannes, France, HP unveiled the HP Jornada 928 Wireless Digital Assistant (WDA), the first two-in-one device that combines a Pocket PC 2002-powered handheld with a dualband GSM and GPRS phone. According to HP, this device is expected to be available in selected Asia-Pacific markets by mid-2002.
The HP Jornada 728 was announced at the recent Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference in London. This device is an upgraded model of the Jornada 720. The former will use Microsoft's Handheld PC OS and have 64MB RAM. The handheld device is expected in selected Asia-Pacific markets later this year.
Toshiba
Although the Toshiba Pocket PC e570 was awarded an Editors' Choice by our US counterpart, a Toshiba Singapore spokesperson revealed that it won't be available in Singapore. However, the company is preparing to unveil another model for the Asia market. Will it be the slim Pocket PC e310 announced at the recent Microsoft Mobility Developer Conference in London? We'll just have to wait and see.
NEC
The company plans to make available its upgraded version of the MobilePro P300, the P300E, some time next month. Although no other details were available, the new NEC Pocket PC-based handheld is expected to have 64MB onboard memory and sport a different look from its 32MB predecessor.
Fujitsu
Fujitsu's Pocket LOOX is one of the first PDAs powered by Intel's speedy XScale processor. Power Pocket PC users looking for a powerful PDA and integrated Bluetooth capability should be able to get their hands on this device in late May.
Others
Companies like Compaq and Casio have yet to make any announcements on new handheld devices. But since the next wave of Pocket PCs will most probably be powered by Intel's XScale processors, these companies can be expected to have their engineers working on new XScale-powered devices.
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