Guest midnight Posted January 10, 2004 Report Posted January 10, 2004 Just got this lovely bit of info from BargainPDA It’s not clear which direction HP will take but they will either release a Smartphone or Pocket PC Phone Edition at some point in the next six months or so. Their handheld team indicated the form factor will almost certainly be a clamshell design, which seems to be gathering quite a bit of steam lately. Based on our conversation, don’t expect the phone to build on the h5450 design and functionality. They’re quite pleased with the reception of the h5450 in the corporate markets and probably will not release an updated model for quite a while.
Guest aristoBrat Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 Clamshell, huh? Our US T-Mobile National Account Rep mentioned that they were working with HP for T-Mobile's next PocketPC Phone. Our HP rep more or less confirmed that, and someone on another forum asked about the MDA II and T-Mobile said that they hadn't planned on that. All rumors, but still interesting. :)
Guest mattscholey Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 I can't see how a PPC could work with a clamshell design though. Clamshell works well with mobile phones because phones have both a screen and buttons. With PPC the buttons are part of the screen (touch-sensitive screen), with only 3 or 4 other buttons. A clamshell PPC would have to have a lot of wasted space on it. Matt
Guest midnight Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 exactly, this does seem to indicate a Smartphone NOT a pocketpc. And there will be a new IPAQ released that does have a full QWERTY keypad, but, this just looks like the standard IPAQ with the keypad below, it is not a clamshell (a clamshell pocketpc wouldnt save all that much space even if it did have a full keyboard and when opened up it would be huge) So, my guess, definitely a Smartphone, but we'll have to wait and see i guess :)
Guest aristoBrat Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 Are you talking about the h4350? FWIW, the Sony Clie is a clamshell PDA. But HP's already figured out how to add a keyboard to an iPAQ, so I don't see why they'd make a clamshell PDA.
Guest midnight Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 yup, thats thats the one, and look at the space wasted on that clie :)
Guest kyrkesmith Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 I hope they do make a Smartphone. The iPaqs are lovely devices, and if they made a phone to that standard, I would be really pleased. They're also never short on features, so we might finally have a great quality device with everything we need (e.g. camera, bluetooth etc.). A clamshell in the style of a Psion 5mx would be nice though......
Guest aristoBrat Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 Thing is, doesn't HTC (the same folks that make the SPV) make everything for HP?
Guest kyrkesmith Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 I know they made the first generation iPaqs, I'm not sure if they're still making the latest ones, but even if they are, it doesn't mean the HP phone will be a dodgy as the SPV in terms of build quality. My reasoning for this is that HP will have a lot of input into the design, and seeing that they have a reputation to uphold, especially in the corporate world, they won't release a piece of crap. Yes, Orange have a reputation too, but not for producing hardware.
Guest [email protected] Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 Back when the Smartphone OS was new I was hoping for HP to make one, because of their experience with microsoft handhelds. Now that I've learned what a jungle the cellphone market is, I would say that an experienced cellphone maufacturer would be better.
Guest kyrkesmith Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 Yeah, you're probably right. This is backed up by the fact the the Motorola is a far superior phone to the SPV in terms of quality.
Guest aristoBrat Posted January 11, 2004 Report Posted January 11, 2004 I only had my MPx200 for a few days (it's RF reception made it useless where I live/work), but I didn't think it was anything amazing compared to the e100. Did HTC start making the e100's a lot better than the did the original SPV's, or are you saying that the MPx quality even beats the e100?
Guest kyrkesmith Posted January 12, 2004 Report Posted January 12, 2004 I agree, compared to the SPV series, the Moto's RF reception is rubbish. Other than that though, I think that the MPx quality really does beat the SPV and E100 in terms of qaulity. And, from what I've heard of the E200, the MPx is better that that too.
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