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This story was printed from CNET Asia.
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Handhelds looming on the horizon

By Ernest Khoo,Staff
22/04/2002
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,39039500,00.htm

The handheld marketplace is becoming increasingly crowded. Previously, a PDA meant getting a Palm or one of the few palm-sized handheld PCs powered by the Win CE operating system. Now, with various Palm OS licensees and Microsoft aggressively pushing the Pocket PC platform, handheld users are confronted with a wealth of choices.

With the advent of more powerful ARM-based processors and various manufacturers' attempts to push the limits of handheld computing, new PDAs are appearing on the market faster than you can say "which PDA?". Take Sony's budget CLIE PEG-S320/G, which was released in August last year in Singapore. By February this year, Sony retired the S320/G and replaced it with the 16MB CLIE PEG-S360/G. Folks who just bought the S320/G would probably be peeved at the new development, but let's face it you can't stop the march of technology.

To help you keep abreast of what handhelds are heading this way, CNETAsia has rounded up with a list of upcoming handhelds from various makers. Since the PDA market is so competitive, manufacturers are generally tight-lipped about specifications and availability of their upcoming devices until these are ready to ship. However, based on trends, product announcements in other parts of the world and our own experience, we can usually make an educated guess as to what's coming up over that horizon.


Intro | Palm-powered | Pocket PC | Linux

Palm-powered handhelds

Palm
With the PDA giant hard at work on Palm OS 5, we can expect new Palm-branded handhelds powered by the new OS some time before year end. The new OS is expected to support ARM-based processors. Previously, Palm announced it would use chips from Texas Instruments. But since the contract is non-exclusive, next-generation Palms may or may not be powered by Texas Instruments. Palm is usually mum about its new handhelds, but at the PalmSource event in the US earlier this year, Todd Bradley, chief operating officer of Palm's Solutions Group, mentioned that the company will introduce a Palm-branded, ARM-based product with wireless capabilities by third-quarter of this year.


Handspring Treo 270
Handspring
Handspring is expected to introduce a color version of its Treo communicator, the Treo 270, some time in mid-2002. This wireless device will run on Palm OS 3.5.2H and a 33MHz Dragonball processor. Like the monochrome Treo 180, the color model will have 16MB of built-in RAM. It's also expected to have a dual-intensity backlight.

Sony
Sony has just announced its brand-new CLIE PEG-NR70 and PEG-NR70V in the US. Although the devices are already available in Japan, Sony has yet to announce the devices' availability for the rest of Asia. Since Sony's previous model, the PEG-T615C/G, shipped to the US before debuting in Asia, we can assume more of the same for the new CLIEs.

HandEra
It's been some time since we've heard from HandEra, the company that produced the HandEra 330, a handheld with a high-res 240x320-pixel screen. Earlier this year, HandEra and Epson announced new products using HandEra's built-in QVGA screen technology and Epson's LCD controller which supports 16-bit color. They also added that these gadgets would be expected to roll out this year. Does this mean a new color HandEra for this year? We'll keep you posted once we get news of this.


Intro | Palm-powered | Pocket PC | Linux

Pocket PC handhelds


HP Jornada 928
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.


Intro | Palm-powered | Pocket PC | Linux

Linux handhelds


Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
Sharp
The Zaurus SL-5500 is already on sale in the US. Linux fans in Asia, however, will have to wait a little longer before this device ships here. According to Sharp, the Zaurus is expected on local shelves in June or July.







Intro | Palm-powered | Pocket PC | Linux