3G is growing in popularity. Australia, for example, has all its major carriers operating 3G networks within all major centres. Looking globally, approximately 75 countries have at least one 3G network deployed. Both carriers and handset manufacturers are beginning to heavily advertise the benefits of 3G. Plans are dropping in price, and more content-rich services are being made available to consumers.
The last really revolutionary, really cool HP device (after, IMHO the 2210) was the hx4700. After that, HP started to be on a constant downhill. All the other manufacturers have already presented working 3G sets and will start shipping really soon (see for example the brick, but really capable F-S T830).
HP will be far too late...
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There is a word for this business strategy, its called "stupid"!
Whenever a company has fallen behind (technologically) it tries to paint advancements by competitors as "insignificant". While their reasoning sounds ok at first, in reality, consumers will nevertheless flock to dual mode (UMTS+GSM) devices, because it makes them feel superior and safe (not having to buy another phone soon IF they actually decide they want to use UMTS).
People may not actively video telephony, full internet browsing and video streaming that much, but they will still buy these handsets, because they are a safe buy and because they are and wull be even more pushed by operators, trying the recoup their huge UMTS investments.
Quite decent. CDMA 3G (EVDO, mostly) has very good coverage throughout the major population centers in the US, they're starting to work on EVDOrev2, and both CDMA carriers have rolled out 3G-enabled Pocket PC phones. Best of all, the "fallback" for EVDO is 1xRTT, which still gives you up to 100kbps, and it transitions between the two seamlessly (I live in a 1xRTT area, but switch into full EVDO coverage halfway in my commute to Manhattan every day).
The GSM camp is a little behind, but speeding up: Cingular's aggressively rolling out HSDPA, and T-Mobile will start sometime this year.
And, as a Treo 700w user with EVDO, let me say that HP are idiots. EVDO is killer for any connected app you use on the phone. I've never found PIE so useable as it is with a connection where I can load a 300-400kb webpage in seconds. It's also great to know I can pull down Word attachments without having to wait for a minute or two. I know I won't be owning any HP devices again anytime soon. :roll:
I think under the new CEO, HP has moved out of the "innovation" limelight and into more of a "follow the pack" light.
3G is growing, but by 2007 it will be much more pervasive than it is now, and probably makes for a good entry point into the market. They could, however, get a nice first mover advantage if they released a killer smartphone in 2006 with 3G, but I think HP's priorities have shifted due to growing shareholder pressure and they will likely play it safe and wait for 2007 to release a run of the mill 6xxx smartphone with EV-DO support.
its nice and cheap here in the US. you can get 3G from Sprint for as low as $15 for unlimited. Verizon has it for $15 also but if you want it for your PDA phone it jumps up to $45. Cingular has it but I don't think they've released any phones that work on it, only PCMCIA cards.
I get unlimited DATA on my Cingular 2125 smartphone for $20 a month. They have 2 plans, one for PDA's and PCMCIA cards that like $40 or $45 a month and the other for smartphones and dumbphones that's $20.
HP Pushes 3G Back to 2007
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