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.

iPaq Vs Jordana

[hooded1]

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.

But, will it run Linux?

[NickV]

Hey, I love my iPaq, but I run intimate Linux on it [handhelds.org], and not PocketPC 2002, 2001, etc... (Something about being able to apt-get on a pda is really damn cool.)

The question is, Compaq is decidely pro-Linux, moreso than even Big Blue, but will we start seeing HP support Linux ports to the Jornada series? I LOVE the Jornada form factor, and it would be great if they did!

What will happen?

[NitsujTPU]

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.

iPaq vs Journada

[camusflage]

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.

x25?

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Sell me hardware, not a "PDA"

[nowt]

Compaq sold me hardware (ipaq) and the freedom [handhelds.org] to use what software I wanted. I bought a physical device.

HP sold me an "HP/C handheld" (jornada 720). To date, after 8 months of effort, no one from HP will provide any kind of support (flashroms? no - although HP Singapore engineers have such modified 720's; hardware info - none) for the jornada. Buying the jornada based on HP's past excellent support of their calculators (yes I know, different division entirely) and HP 200 'palmtops' was quite a mistake. The jornada is technically a great device but practically useless to me (read, "MS only")

I sincerely hope the HP/Compaq merger does not go through.