---------- ---------- PC Pro Realworld Computing: Paul Lynch - PDAs

Pilot in a Phone



mock up of the Qualcomm pdQ PalmOS smartphone
mock up of the Qualcomm pdQ PalmOS smartphone

3com have said that they plan to build their market by encouraging a lot more activity to come from their partnerships, citing the IBM Workpad, and other cooperative ventures with Sybase, Oracle and including bar code vertical applications. One new example of that is the Qualcomm pdQ smartphone. The pdQ is a typical modern digital phone, but with a PalmOS computer built-in as the display of the device.

Custom email, web and an SMS Alert Manager are included, and the Address application is integrated with the phone dial functions, with Dialer and Call History functions available. Versions will be available for both 800 and 1900 MHz version, as well as analog (which is still strong in the USA), in the first half of 1999. Demos of the pdQmail and pdQweb applications are already available for download from the web site.

The phone should weight just over 200g, depending on the choice of battery, with a 2.5 hour talk time and 40 hour standby (using the Li Ion battery). This is slightly shorter than the latest stand alone phones, but nothing to complain about. Size will be 1.4" x 2.6" x 6.2", which is on the large side, and noticeably broader than most phones.

http://www.qualcomm.com/pdQ/



Words and design by:
Paul Lynch
Last updated: November 3, 1998

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