HP launches iPaq 510 with dual-mode phone capability

12.02.2007
Hewlett-Packard Co. announced Monday a dual-mode smart phone targeted at mobile professionals that allows voice calls and data connections both in Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

Called the HP iPaq 510 Voice Messenger in the U.S., the smart phone will ship with when that new operating systems is available in April or May, said Niraj Gandhi, a product marketing manager at HP. Pricing will be from US$299 to $349, he added.

Features include 6.5 hours of talk time under best network conditions, with the ability to move across GSM, GPRS or EDGE cellular networks into 802.11b/g networks seamlessly, Gandhi said in an interview. "It does not drop calls when crossing the network edge," he said. The phone also supports Bluetooth wireless devices.

Dual-mode phones are catching on worldwide, with the Wi-Fi Alliance saying today that it has certified 82 such devices from about 20 vendors, including HP. More than 325 million converged Wi-Fi/cellular phones and 15 million single-mode Wi-Fi phones will ship in 2011, alliance officials said, citing ABI Research. Other dual-mode phone vendors include Nokia Corp., Siemens AG and Motorola Inc.

For end users, the long battery time and voice-to-text capabilities of the iPaq 510 could prove the most gratifying, Gandhi said. For example, software shipping with the phone will allow it to convert text e-mail to voice, and a VoiceReply feature will allow the ability to respond to e-mails by voice.

The phone includes 12 function keys, but no QWERTY keyboard as seen on some other smart phones. Lack of a full keyboard "may really hurt the device," said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. But Dulaney said it is the first device he has seen to include the latest WPA2 security.