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PDA Wars: HP Strikes Back With New Jornadas
wbav writes "According to this article on cnn HP has anounced that they are releasing two new models. At 6 ounces it sports a 203 mhz processor and 32 or 64 megs of ram depending on the model. It comes with Pocket PC 2002, and support for VPNs. Very nice." I do wonder what will happen to the Jornada, given the HP purchase of Compaq - my understanding is that the iPaq has kicked far more butt then the Jornada.
I believe the main reason why the iPaq has been so much more successful than other Pocket PCs is because it has been the first one to take advantage of the strong arm technology. It also sports a pretty cool case. Although the PC Card expansion sleave is a bit clunky it allows for wireless PCMCIA cards. Wireless LAN access is of course ideal for a PDA. I am very interested to see what HP will do with the iPaq ideally they will combine it the the best aspects of the Jordana.
A rabbit in the hand is worth 4 in the cage
Most likely, whichever platform is superior will be marketted as the jordana or some new name.
Does HP plan to continue using the Compaq brandname? There's the chance that they may want names like iPaq (even though iPuke when iHear iPrefixed too many freaking iTimes).
Or they may attempt to steal features from both, not necessarilly on a technical level (since incompatibilities may arise, but I haven't studied the particulars close enough to comment on that), but icons, trademarks, interface features, so on.
Compaq has been mopping up vs HP in PocketPC sales. HP took the hit a while ago with the high color screens that really only did 4096 colors. Given the recent merger, and the shareholder doubts surrounding it, one has to wonder how this will play out in product introductions from each, and whether this is or is not good for Casio, the Number 3 in the PocketPC race.
Don't underestimate the speed to market aspect in handhelds. When Palm announced, but couldn't deliver on, the new models, they dealt themselves a mighty blow. Given the speed of change in handhelds, marketing, technology, and manufacturing all have to be singing off the same page to ensure market success.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
I do wonder what will happen to the Jornada, given the HP purchase of Compaq - my understanding is that the iPaq has kicked far more butt then the Jornada.
:)
Yes Jornada's kicks, but the success of iPaq tells us a company's marketing and supporting is also very important.
I know many people who are going to develop apps for iPaq have the common happy experience - Compaq is being very supportive in development, martketing and financing when you shows your intention to develop for iPaq.
Compaq will take every opportunities to promote your apps(even in pre-alpha stage) in every trade show and even invite you to their promotional events if possible. If your apps is good enough Compaq even help you line up VCs for you to start a new company! That's some kind of convenience that couldn't be found in developing apps in other handheld devices.
It's no harm in having two lines of similar products, but to ensure the success Jornada HP must put their entire Jornada's team under iPaq's. Really, you can hardly find any other line of business more supportive than iPaq's.
The Viewpad
Not as cumbersome as a laptop, but larger than a iPaq or Jornada, which makes it ideal for me.
I recently (some weeks before the HP/Compaq merger was announced) had the chance to check out a prototype Jordana that's in testing at the moment.
Unlike the model mentioned here, the unit I saw, labelled X25, was a lower-end PDA aimed squarely at college students, as evidenced by the glossy made-up "consumer profiles" supplied to the testers.
The unit is slim, has a crisp monochrome screen, a and hardware MP3 decoder. Best of all ppl, the OS is Linux, though the UI and apps are all Java. It runs pretty nicely, looks cool, and is likely to be very cheap!
It's not based on the ipaq at all though, so it will be interesting to see just how a parallel Linux-based PDA project however meritorious will survive in the brave new "synergized" HP/Compaq world...
206 MHz StrongARM SA-1110
32MB DRAM
32MB Flash
240 x 320 pixel, 4096-color
USB, serial, Ethernet
Linux
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.