HP have released a new model in the 1900 Series, the h1937, with Windows Mobile for Pocket 2003. At the time of realease it was also the world's smallest Pocket PC and weighed in at just 124g. At 24,800 yen (or 19,800 if you can catch one of the frequent campaigns) it's a good purchase for anyone who doesn't need a Compact Flash slot and the other features of the h5450 which is almost 3 times the regular price of the h1937.
This year's PDA Solution Fair in Tokyo will be held on September 5. Last year's show featured almost exclusively Pocket PC solutions and from the look of the seminars this year will be the same. So far 36 vendors are signed up for the exhibition floor a similar number to last year. The main hardware vendors are there but the bulk of companies are offering services or solutions. Two special features of the show this year are the Bluetooth and Small & Medium Business Solutions Seminars.
The great thing about this Fair is that the seminars and workshops are free. The workshops are mainly hardware demonstrations by the main vendors and the seminars feature Pocket PC 2003 as well as presentations by solutions vendors.
Overall this is a great show for seeing how PCs are really being used in business, although is of interest to the personal PDA user are well. Last year's show was good and this year the show is well worth a visit.
Power users will want to wait until Toshiba (hopefully!) release a new model in the e550 series with 4" screen, CF slot, faster processor (is it needed?), 128 MB of RAM (or more?). Still they would have to think of something original beyond this to convince most current e550G owners to pay 60,000 yen plus to upgrade. Which raises the question - are we going to see Pocket PC 2003 upgrades for existing models in Japan. No news so far ...
e350 News at WinCE Fan (Japanese only)
e350 at the Toshiba Site (Japanese only)
Following my long awaited purchase of a Tablet PC I've started a blog/commentary site called Tablet PC Experience. I will be including my thoughts about Tablet PCs in Japan and also how a Tablet PC compliments (or otherwise?) my Pocket PC. I hope it will be interesting reading. Comments can be added to the posts.
If you missed out on the earlier offer to get the HP 1920 at 19,800 you can still save 5,000 yen off the normal price of 24,800 if you are one of the first 200 to buy from their booth (Japanese only) at Wireless Japan which started today (16th July) and runs until 18th. English information about this interesting show here.
Good news - Microsoft has released a new version of MS Reader and it appears to work on Japanese Pocket PCs! At last users are no longer restricted from reading Reader format books by the language of their OS.
And the prize goes to Toshiba for the e750 (Japanese only) - but it's for sale to businesses only, so the first consumer model still to come.
Microsoft Japan announced the official release to manufacturers of the Japanese version of Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PCs on 30th June, just one week after the US announcement (compared to 3 months for Pocket PC 2000 and, 1 month for Pocket PC 2002).
As always Windows CE Fan has all the latest news.
http://www.wince.ne.jp/PocketPC2003/
(Use http://www.excite.co.jp/wordl/url for machine translations).
Watch out for more news and reviews in English here. At first look, in addition to the same changes as in the US version, the Japanese input system has been improved and Victor are entering the market on the hardware side. Still no news from any of the hardware vendors about new models featuring the new operating system.
It just appeared on the Microsoft site as I was writing this but it's been on the top Pocket PC sites for a few hours - 'Windows Mobile 2003' is officially out. The Pocket PC Fan sites seem pretty happy with the changes, and for most owners of existing devices it looks like upgrades are going to be free or cheap (if you bought within the last month) and low cost if you bought before that. Unfortunately no coverage on either the MS Japan or the Japan based fan sites yet (although it is the middle of the night here), so here are a couple of interesting US site links.
- Pocket PC Thoughts is targeting new posts every 2003 seconds, but here is one of the more insightful ones.
- A nice, concise overview from Pocket PC Magazine
The improved performance is getting a lot of good reviews and something I am really looking forward to. There don't seem to be a huge range of new software features, but the New Connection Manager, Zero Configuration WLAN and improved Pocket IE are the most important ones for me. Check out a quick tour with screenshots.
Until the Hp h1920 news there has been a dearth of news since April. Anyone following Pocket PC news elsewhere will have surely heard the unofficial word on the web that Pocket PC 2003 is due out later this year. Some people are saying it is just going to be a small upgrade, others have posted details of more wide ranging improvements. Of course most people who have any info are sticking strictly to their NDA so full details are not available. The fact that manufacturers in general have not been making many announcements is though most likely the calm before the storm.
So who will announce the first Pocket PC 2003 in Japan? More importantly who will be the first to get one on the market?* Will the release of the hp1920 set a new price standard for Pocket PCs? Will we see any new and original hardware features? ..... Of course you can guarantee that the top stories from Japan will be featured here on Pocket PC Japan!
*My bet is on market leader Toshiba but there are rumors of a new Fujitsu model in Europe with built-in wireless and Bluetooth. Fujitsu is tied with Siemens though so it's by no means certain we'll see that here.
6/9/2003 - Update: Here's an article in Japanese from PC Web on the upcoming release of Pocket PC 2003.
6/13/2003 - Pocket PC 2003 will be released in 2003 in the US with Gateway joing the market. No news of a Japan release date yet though. The talk is that it will not be a huge update but that the OS will be optimized for Intel's StrongArm processors so it will be interesting to see what the performance is like.
Not a Pocket PC, but closely related - DoCoMo's 3rd generation Sigmarion Handheld PC. On Pocket PC Thoughts there is even a debate about whether it is a Handheld PC, although if that's what DoCoMo is calling it so I am. Great to have a keyboard but it is much bulkier than a Pocket PC, and as it is running Windws CE .net I doubt it will run software available for Pocket PCs. I wonder if it will also be able to run the limited software available for current Handheld PCs? If little 3rd party software is available this is a huge drawback for anyone who is likely to need anything more than skeleton functionality.
