HP said to be prepping consumer-minded iPAQ smartphone

Details on this one are about as light as can be at the moment, but The Wall Street Journal has it that HP is aiming to expand its iPAQ smartphone line into the consumer market with a new model that it'll market to both average consumers and corporate users alike. According to "people briefed on the plan," the phone will have both a touchscreen and a keypad and, naturally, it'll run Windows Mobile 6.1 -- oh, and it'll be able to "send and receive emails, and access the Internet." While there's no indication of a price just yet, word is the device will be available in Europe first within the next two months, with a worldwide release to follow sometime thereafter.

[Via Gearlog]

[tom @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:03PM]

WOW, I am sooo underwhelmed!!!

With that phrase, HP's new smartphone is considered a failure in the beginning. Unless they price aggressively. I mean really really aggressive. $0 on a 2 year?

PS to HP, you don't need to bring em' to the other side of the pond.

[TareX @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:04PM]

The anticipated HP Oak was planned for a SEPTEMBER 08 launch.... I thought it was canned.

If it's anything like its concept photo, it should be some sort of Xperia killer.... much thinner, with a better keyboard + front numpad, but without Panels, which I think is overrated compared to the front numpad functionality.

Image:
http://bp1.blogger.com/_5lL1y9ELMFM/R4B9Us89C8I/AAAAAAAABZs/Lh738RJZv9g/s400/HP+Oak.jpg
On the downside, like any non-TouchFLO WM phone, it will feature heavy stylus usage.

[Surur @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:22PM]

Ask any Windows Mobile Treo owner - you hardly need the stylus - WM 6.1 supports a keyboard pretty well.

[1234321 @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:23PM]

what's so bad about a stylus?
yeah it takes .6 seconds to pull out, but it increases speed, and allows for more items due to dramitically better accuracy

[StalematE @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:05PM]

honest question... why does europe get everything first?

[kojo87 @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:09PM]

not everything. just the stuff that we actually care about :(

[Cagrino @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:32PM]

Honest answer... they don't. They were pretty well screwed on the iPhone for some time.

Back on topic, this vague description is not much different than the HP 910. And if HP follows the 910's trajectory from announcement to actual delivery than we can expect an ETA of 2010.

[Geert @ Oct 6th 2008 3:16AM]

First; We have to wait on most things and usually things land first in Asia or the US, it's not as bad as the other continents but your conclusion is a bit crooked...

Second; It might have something to do with the fact that companies seem to find that receiving the same amount of euro's as they would get in dollars might be more attractive

[TareX @ Oct 3rd 2008 4:07PM]

http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/wp-content/phoneimages/2008/01/gsmarena_hp-oak.jpg

[Derbeste @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:00PM]

Did you really just use "it'll" twice in this story?

.......how quaint.

[mercurysunblast @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:25PM]

Actually, it was three times...and grammarians get on my nerves.

[Samurai Jack @ Oct 3rd 2008 5:16PM]

Engadget, you so need to replace the "invent" caption under the HP logo with "copy".

[Jubei @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:01PM]

Actually they should just use "Me Too - The Microsoft Way".

[GON @ Oct 3rd 2008 6:03PM]

Well it makes sense. If they can make an additional ui for their computers (TouchSmart), then they can make something along those lines for their own smartphones. Too bad HTC has excelled in that area though..

[huh @ Oct 3rd 2008 7:23PM]

HP has a horrible history of promising amazing SmartPhones way ahead of release, and by the time they're released, they're way behind the best in features. I've heard it has something to do with their supplier relationship (HTC?), if they haven't fixed that then I wouldn't expect any different this time.

That and Windows Mobile? I wish they'd jump on the Android bandwagon, they have a good open source history otherwise.

[inteller @ Oct 3rd 2008 9:00PM]

this would be a good chance to throw on that Zune software Ballmer said was coming.