Friday, April 16, 2004
New PDAs that take advantage of built-in phone gubbins
For some time now, we've seen that the mobile phone manufacturers have been trying to get into the PDA market with 'smart' phones, and some PDA manufacturers have been successful in geeting into the phone market (the notable example being Handspring's Treo).
Now, however, there is real evidence that the big PDA makers (namely HP) are really interested in releasing convergent devices, ie a PDA that is as good at being a phone as it is at being a phone. For a device like this, the benefits are more that the sum of its parts - a PDA with built-in phone capabilities can offer data connectivity outside of wireless lan range by using whatever means its phone bit supports (maybe EDGE, GPRS, HSCSD, or plain old GSM).
the specs of the new hp device, leaked here, suggest a truly convergent device that does exactly what i've just mentioned, and to top it off HP are even claiming (I say claiming, cos this is hard to do) to offer seamless roaming between, say, GPRSand wireless LAN. now, if my experiences are anything to go by, just getting a seamless GPRS connection in the first will be hard enough, especially when you're on the move (why is GSM/GPRS coverage so bad between stafford and birmingham?), so i'll be surprised to see this working. but very pleased and suitably impressed if it does.
For some time now, we've seen that the mobile phone manufacturers have been trying to get into the PDA market with 'smart' phones, and some PDA manufacturers have been successful in geeting into the phone market (the notable example being Handspring's Treo).
Now, however, there is real evidence that the big PDA makers (namely HP) are really interested in releasing convergent devices, ie a PDA that is as good at being a phone as it is at being a phone. For a device like this, the benefits are more that the sum of its parts - a PDA with built-in phone capabilities can offer data connectivity outside of wireless lan range by using whatever means its phone bit supports (maybe EDGE, GPRS, HSCSD, or plain old GSM).
the specs of the new hp device, leaked here, suggest a truly convergent device that does exactly what i've just mentioned, and to top it off HP are even claiming (I say claiming, cos this is hard to do) to offer seamless roaming between, say, GPRSand wireless LAN. now, if my experiences are anything to go by, just getting a seamless GPRS connection in the first will be hard enough, especially when you're on the move (why is GSM/GPRS coverage so bad between stafford and birmingham?), so i'll be surprised to see this working. but very pleased and suitably impressed if it does.
(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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