Nokia to unveil touchscreen phone next week

Reuters is reporting that Nokia will unveil its first touchscreen phone at a media event next week in London.
The phone, whose leaked pictures were posted on this blog earlier this week, is the result of plenty of market pressure since the iPhone’s debut more than a year ago. According to a Gartner analyst in the article, Nokia’s position as the leader of the mobile market has got the world waiting for their next move.
That move is reported to happen Oct. 2.
Nokia announced back in July that it would introduce its first touch-screen phone this year, and that it would be sold for a cheaper price than rival touch-screen models in order to tap into a higher-volume market.
Of course, the pressure’s on ever since HTC and T-Mobile introduced the Google Android-powered G1 this week, which retails for $179, slightly cheaper than the iPhone.
Would you buy a touchscreen Nokia phone? And for that matter, will touchscreen smartphones replace standard cell phones altogether? Tell us in TalkBack.

HP should be shipping the iPAQ 900 series Mobile Messenger soon

There is definitely not a lack of choice in new mobile phones this year with the Apple iPhone 3G, HTC Touch Diamond, Samsung OMNIA, Nokia E71, BlackBerry Bold, and more being announced/leaked and shown all over the internet. It was last September when HP announced new Windows Mobile devices and thanks to a post at jkOnTheRun I found out that HP’s new HP iPAQ 900 Series Business Messenger announcement made yesterday.

The iPAQ 910 is shown on the HP site as coming soon and is expected to start shipping at the end of June for an undisclosed price. Specifications include a Marvell PXA270 processor running at 416MHz with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, 2.46 inch 320×240 touch screen, 3 megapixel camera, 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, quad-band GSM, integrated GPS receiver, integrated QWERTY keyboard, and huge 1940 mAh battery. It also looks like it has a Pearl-like center trackball for navigation.

I used to only buy HP Pocket PC devices and the specs on this one may actually bring me back to HP again as it looks to have everything I could ask for in a single device. It may sell as an unlocked device too since there were no carrier announcements and HP has done that in the past with their devices.

I am very interested in testing this out to see if HP is back in the game again and I have high hopes for the device. My only concern is the processor, but I am willing to give it a chance and see how it performs. It is going to be very tough to figure out what device to get with all of these great units hitting the street this summer and fall.


Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle.