Japan PDA Market Quiet, but HP Continues to Push

Well things have been very quiet in the Pocket PC world in Japan this year. In fact the whole PDA section in one of Tokyo's biggest electronic stores had slimmed down to just a few devices which included 1 Clie, 2 Zaurus and 1 Toshiba Pocket PC. Still Dell and HP are plugging away at the Japanese market. HP still have a good line up of 6 models here and have just announced a package that includes a Hagiwara Bluetooth GPS receiver and navigation package from b-walker. You can see a flash video (in Japanese) about HP's PDA strategy in Japan here.

Hopefully the arrival of Windows Mobile 5 devices to Japan late this year or early next will bring back a bit of excitement. I heard that HP will provide an upgrade for the hx4700 - great news! More and more of the development effort for Windows Mobile is going into SmartPhones and Pocket PC phones so I'm sure Windows Mobile users overseas are having much more fun. There is no sign of these appearing in Japan anytime soon, although it wouldn't surprise me to see a SmartPhone here at some point in the future. Perhaps one of the two new mobile carriers starting up over the next year will take the bait ??? Given the super advanced nature of phones here - in terms of both function and usability - Windows Mobile will face stiff competition but it would be good to see SmartPhones on the market here.