New Palm-Based Smartphones Coming Soon

Posted By: Ed on Wednesday, September 20, 2000 10:07:38 AM

Kyocera Wireless Corp. has announced that they will use the Palm OS as the foundation for a new line of advanced wireless communications products. In February of this year, Kyocera purchased Qualcomm's CDMA handset business, including the pdQ smartphone. This new agreement represents a transfer of the original Qualcomm license to Kyocera.

Masahiro Inoue, president and CEO of Kyocera said "Improving on the foundation established by the pdQ smartphone, Kyocera's next generation product will feature greatly improved usability and security enhancements to support mobile e-commerce applications. Kyocera expects to introduce this new generation of smartphones before the end of this year."

Old pdQ

"Kyocera Wireless Corp. is excited to use the Palm OS software as the basis for creating a new generation of smartphones that meets the needs of the average consumer as well as the enterprise user," said Inoue.

When some details on these smartphones were leaked back in April, they were described as being one inch shorter and nearly half as thick as the old pdQ.

The pdQ smartphone, which was introduced in September 1998, was the first CDMA digital wireless phone to integrate the Palm OS software.

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Too Many Choices?

Ed @ 9/20/2000 1:48:13 PM #

There sure are going to be a lot of things running the Palm OS by this Christmas. Deciding what I want just got a lot harder. Should I get a color Visor? Or wait for a color Clié? Or maybe Kyocera will let me cut down on the clutter and I'll get a smartphone. So many decisions and all the options look so good!

---
Plenipotentiary
Palm InfoCenter

RE: Too Many Choices?

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/20/2000 4:22:12 PM #

Oh defenitly go with the color visor. I messed with a clie the other night.. it's nice, real nice, I live the little dail wheel they stuck on it. Even though it's nice, I think you'll get more for your money with the color visor. A faster CPU, more color then any other Palm base pda.. and i't cost if not sheaper, then about the same as the color sony will..

RE: Too Many Choices?

pfloyd @ 9/20/2000 6:24:13 PM #

I think the way to go is just plan on selling your old one and buying a new one at least once a year. Imagine Yoda saying, "Follow the Upgrade Path..."

I hated the pdq...

bighead @ 9/21/2000 3:31:46 PM #

I hated the pdq because it was as big, and even uglier than those old clunky Motorola box mobile phones (remember those with the floppy antennas?) It was almost twice as long and thick as a III series, and maybe an inch wider. What a POS. I asked the guy at my local Sprint PCS store and he said only 3 people had bought them in almost a year.

I would like to see something small, like in a Nokia or Samsung form factor, with a smallish m100-style screen (even smaller, if they could get it to work well).

What would be even cooler is if the one Palm-based phone could act as a wireless access point (via IR) for another Palm-based handheld to access the internet or something like that. hehe. Sweet!

pDq

I.M. Anonymous @ 9/24/2000 11:30:41 PM #

to compete with the neopoint they are going to have to be lighter and cheaper. the dual band is coming soon!

Palm Software on sale