Intel Investors!!
NEC is now on board along with Toshiba and Compaq using Intel StrongArm processors in PDAs:
Toshiba, NEC tap Wintel for PDAs
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
(07/20/01, 2:48 p.m. EST)
TOKYO — Toshiba Corp. and NEC are both combining the Intel StrongARM processor and handheld versions of Microsoft's Windows in new platforms.
Toshiba this fall will introduce a compact personal digital assistant (PDA) named Genio e to the U.S. market. The PDA is based on a 206-MHz StrongARM and Microsoft's Windows for the Pocket PC operating system. Its 3.5-inch QVGA reflective color TFT LCD offers a front-lighting feature.
Slightly smaller than the highly successful iPaq handheld from Compaq Computer Corp., Genio e will fit into a shirt pocket. It has slots for SD and CompactFlash cards. Toshiba plans eventually to introduce a Bluetooth SD card, as well as cellular functions.
"The PDA market has taken off in the United States, and that will be our main target. We have been working hard with cellular companies in the United States and will offer a model with a built-in communications function in the next fiscal year [which starts in April]," said Tetsiuya Mizoguchi, president of Toshiba Mobile Communications.
For its part, NEC's handheld, expected later this year, will use Windows CE. The company was an early supporter of Microsoft's drive into handhelds, while Toshiba is making its first foray into the Windows-based handheld market.
Market research firm IDC projects that the worldwide PDA market will hit 13.5 million units this year and 30 million units in 2004.
"Demand for PDAs will be greater overseas than in Japan, because mobile phones are evolving to gain more functions in Japan. In this sense, the U.S. market will offer more opportunities to Toshiba," said Katsushi Shiga, principal analyst at the Dataquest division of Gartner Japan Ltd. |
