HP iPaq taps wide variety of formats
The device automatically sniffs for cellular GPRS data networks and Wi-Fi hotspots, choosing to transmit over the higher speed Wi-Fi when it's available. It also can handle voice calls over the GSM cellular network.
Even beyond this capability, the HP iPaq Pocket PC h6315, available exclusively from T-Mobile through the end of the year, is a bit of a Swiss Army knife.
Users will be able to talk over a wirelessly connected Bluetooth headset while browsing the Internet via Wi-Fi all at the same time.
They can take a picture with the device, with the handheld finding the fastest available wireless network to send the photo in e-mail.
They can connect an external keyboard, which comes with the PDA, for heavy-duty typing.
They can send e-mail through their corporate servers and listen to digital music.
T-Mobile USA, based in Bellevue, will be the first major carrier in the United States and one of the first around the globe to offer a PDA that combines cellular and Wi-Fi. This year, 4,800 such combined devices are in use worldwide, according to Allen Nogee, principal analyst at In-Stat/MDR. Next year he expects 529,000, with that number ballooning to 39.3 million in 2007.
Small steps
Still, while the device is one of the first of its kind, it falls short on a couple of capabilities expected to appear soon. For example, even though the device can detect if the user is in range of GPRS and Wi-Fi networks and then default to the Wi-Fi network, it can't switch networks while maintaining a connection.
That means that when customers download a file over T-Mobile's GPRS cellular-data network, an icon will pop up on the screen if they move into an area covered by a Wi-Fi network.
But they'll have to wait for the download to complete before the device can switch to the Wi-Fi network. Users may then have to enter passwords to be authorized to use the Wi-Fi network.
For applications such as e-mail, the device will automatically start sending or receiving over Wi-Fi once it's in range. For example, users can send an e-mail while in an area covered by the GPRS network and once they enter a Wi-Fi coverage area, the device will send the next e-mail over the Wi-Fi network.
The capability to offer seamless roaming between such networks is already available, but business concerns may stall some carriers from offering it, said Warren Wilson, an analyst with Summit Strategies.
"Operators have been concerned about the hotspot networks cannibalizing their cellular-data businesses," he said. That's a concern even for operators like T-Mobile, which owns both cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
Wilson said the company and other carriers want to be able to pay off the significant investments they made in building their cellular-data networks.
"They made these investment decisions before Wi-Fi was really on the horizon," he said. "They committed amounts to their wide-area-network upgrades that they might have shied away from had they realized how quickly the hotspot capability would come along."
An HP group offers technology to enterprises that allows workers to preserve a session as they move from a GPRS network to a Wi-Fi network, said Rick Roesler, HP handhelds vice president.
However, there is no standard roaming method and he expects the technology to improve, when it may become supported by PDAs.
Users will begin to demand seamless roaming, so Wilson expects carriers to begin offering it.
Pricing services
T-Mobile plans to introduce a new pricing scheme to accompany the device when it becomes available the third week of August. While the company isn't revealing details of the pricing, it said that for less than $100 customers would get a bucket of voice minutes and unlimited data that will include both GPRS and Wi-Fi.
"It'll be a one-price bucket," said Scott Ballantyne, vice president of business-service marketing for T-Mobile. "We don't care if you're in a hotspot or on GPRS all day long."
Such a pricing plan may help T-Mobile attach value to Wi-Fi, offered free by many cafes and other establishments. "Carriers realize that Wi-Fi is popular but it's perceived as cheap, so the battle is how to bring cellular into it and get people to pay for it," said Nogee, the analyst.
Customers won't be limited to T-Mobile hotspots. They can access Wi-Fi networks in their homes, offices or through other hotspot providers in hotels or cafes.
T-Mobile interest
T-Mobile is uniquely positioned among cellular operators to offer a combined Wi-Fi and cellular service because it owns an extensive Wi-Fi network, including 4,700 locations in the United States.
Other cellular carriers could offer a combined service, but they'd have to do so through agreements with another hotspot operator.
The HP iPaq Pocket PC h6315 does not include the ability to place voice calls over Wi-Fi, a service available from some vendors. T-Mobile didn't include it because of quality concerns, Ballantyne said.
"Right now with the GSM network, T-Mobile are very happy with the quality of voice," he said. Offering another type of voice service that might not meet such standards would be premature.
The HP iPaq Pocket PC h6315, which was co-branded and co-developed by HP and T-Mobile, will cost $499.99.
Nancy Gohring, a Seattle freelancer, writes frequently about the telecommunications industry.