3GSM: HP launches first smartphone

BARCELONA--HP unveiled its first smartphone at the 3GSM World Congress, showing off a new slimmed down and voice-centric version of its iPAQ wireless PDA line it is targeting at the rapidly growing smartphone sector.

The iPAQ 514 Voice Messenger is one of the first handsets using the new Windows Mobile 6 OS, which Microsoft launched this week at 3GSM. It also includes several features not typically found on the smartphone, the most prominent of them being VoIP capabilities. The iPAQ uses Wi-Fi to connect to office networks, making the phone a virtual extension of the enterprise PBX and an alternative to the standard office IP phone extension.

Several vendors have developed IP Wi-Fi and VoIP enabled-handhelds, but most of those devices have been Wi-Fi only or PDA-style handsets. Very few of such capabilities have made it into smartphones, which depend on their cellular capabilities for their primary voice communication as well as data connections. In the case of the new iPAQ, however, HP seems to be making the Wi-Fi radio the primary connection on the phone, shunning a 3G connection and using GSM/EDGE as a fallback technology for data communications and wide-area network voice connectivity.

The iPAQ 514 is also the first to support HP’s new over-the-air device management capabilities using technology it acquired from Bitfone. The platform allows enterprises to remotely manage and support the iPAQ and other devices, setting security and access permissions as well as loading new applications and patches. HP also built powerful voice controls into the handset, which allow users to navigate the phones primary functions by voice as well as dictate voice e-mail.