iPAQ 5000 Series Coming Soon to Canada?

[Jason Dunn]

Pocket PC Thoughts reader Cliff emailed me recently with some interesting first-hand information on the new iPAQ Pocket PCs. Here's what Cliff had to say. Interesting, no?<br /><br />"I had an opportunity to speak to the iPaq product manager today. HP set up a booth in my building (Atrium on Bay in downtown Toronto) to demonstrate the current iPaqs. In addition to showing me all sorts of gadgets -- Destinator GPS, Nexicam sleeves, Aircard, some sort of presentation device, etc., the conversation soon turned to the upcoming iPaq 5000.<br /><br />Not only did he confirm (actually, volunteered) information on the features (replaceable battery, etc.), he also told me that they were considering 4 versions (of the 6) for the Canadian market. While I didn't catch all the specifics of those particular models, I do have some information on availability. Availability of the 5000 for Canada will be as follows:<br /><br />• A Wi-Fi version: Ships late November, availability in early December. (Just in time for Christmas!) It is expected to sell for about $1100.<br /><br />• CDMA and GSM versions: Most likely in late Spring -- May or June. This is partly dependent on testing and approval by Bell and Rogers.<br /><br />As I mentioned, he offered the information freely, which either means that he is terrible at keeping secrets, or they will be officially announcing the product very soon."

[bdeli]

• A Wi-Fi version: Ships late November, availability in early December. (Just in time for Christmas!) It is expected to sell for about $1100.

$1100 is a hefty price to pay. Seems like it will have the same pricing as the 3970 and 3870 series.

[Paragon]

That is very nice to hear, but I'm gonig to be the first guy to rain on the parade. $1100.00 CND....hmmmm or Dell, Viewsonic, and others poping up daily for $300.00 USD or $450.00 CDN. I'm thinking I can get one hell of a WiFi card with the $650.00 CND exra I have left over. Somehow I doubt I'm going to be the only one to come to this conclusion. Sorry to be negative....just the harsh facts.


dave

[splintercell]

• A Wi-Fi version: Ships late November, availability in early December. (Just in time for Christmas!) It is expected to sell for about $1100.

With cheap PDAs from Dell and other manufacturers, prices dropping on existing wireless gear, and things like the SD Wi-Fi card coming soon, that's really hefty for a PDA!

[bdeli]

And the price excludes our famous GST/PST taxes and shipping/handling charges...so it seems the final price will be in the $1300 region!

[Trade Wind]

Verizon Wireless is already in testing w/ the new iPAQ...it even has a Push To Talk (PTT) feature like Nextel's Direct Connect! VZW's PTT feature isn't expected to be available until Q1 2003, so spring for the CDMA iPAQ sounds about right.

[MobileAGBell]

This same story was posted by someone named paqiderm a couple of weeks ago on Brighthand. Almost word-for-word.

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=fc2e0dc7dbd789e49266c7f8005c4591&threadid=61352

A new urban legend or a harbinger of things to come?

[splintercell]

Verizon Wireless is already in testing w/ the new iPAQ...it even has a Push To Talk (PTT) feature like Nextel's Direct Connect!

And where does all this info come from? PTT? A CDMA version of the iPAQ? Big news to me, never heard anything like that. Any more tasty tidbits? :wink:

[cliff]

Perhaps paqiderm and Cliff are the same person :?:

[Pony99CA]

• A Wi-Fi version: Ships late November, availability in early December. (Just in time for Christmas!) It is expected to sell for about $1100.

$1100 is a hefty price to pay. Seems like it will have the same pricing as the 3970 and 3870 series.
Assuming that's $1100 Canadian :-) and $0.67 US per Canadian dollar, that works out to $737 US, which is cheaper than the 3970 (albeit barely). If the 5000 series is the high-end iPAQ, then HP will likely be lowering the price of the 3900 series.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

That is very nice to hear, but I'm gonig to be the first guy to rain on the parade. $1100.00 CND....hmmmm or Dell, Viewsonic, and others poping up daily for $300.00 USD or $450.00 CDN. I'm thinking I can get one hell of a WiFi card with the $650.00 CND exra I have left over. Somehow I doubt I'm going to be the only one to come to this conclusion. Sorry to be negative....just the harsh facts.

"Facts" based upon a rumor? :lol:

Even if this price turns out to be correct, remember that this is the 5000 series, the high-end iPAQ. Don't forget about the 2000 series, which will supposedly compete in price with the low/mid-range Pocket PCs.

Steve

[CoffeeKid]

Man... $1100 ($725 USD) their time has so come and gone.

This is such a trend in high tech. Innovators quickly (with few exceptions) dominate, then fade away. That price is going to turn that product ice cold.

With regards to their GSM / whatever PPC Phone, it's a year too late, and they'll probably hook up with Rogers or Telus, and then scratch their heads why a $1200 PPC Phone isn't flying off the shelves with it's 3 year associated luggage (read: contract).

Mark, who's thinkin' Dell more and more.

[Dave Conger]

Wow, people are bashing this because of price but if it is say a 5400 series product for around $700-750, I think that is pretty good actually. Fingerprint scanner, bluetooth, wi-fi, tranflective screen....show me another device that has those three built in and an SD slot!

[Paragon]

Wow, people are bashing this because of price but if it is say a 5400 series product for around $700-750, I think that is pretty good actually. Fingerprint scanner, bluetooth, wi-fi, tranflective screen....show me another device that has those three built in and an SD slot!

Well, Dave with a difference in the price tag of $650.00 CND and you look at many new PPCs coming out now with dual slots you can throw in a Bluetooth and/or wi-fi Cf card which means that you are still paying one heck of a lot of money for a fingerprint scanner. It's no wonder they were talking about this on Bay Street (Canada's Wall St.) Not many people elsewhere would pony up that kinda money for those features.

The real question I don't think is "will it sell" I think it will sell. Will it command a large market share?.....Not a chance I don't think! You now have Dell, ViewSonic, Toshiba, XDA's, and a couple of others out there with very sellable products. HP/Compaq had us believing we had to pay $600.00 to $750.00 USD for a device with only an SD slot and a nice screen. Guess what? We don't! Think back to when we all had 3600 series Ipaqs, when there was ever any kind of rumor of a new Ipaq the discussion forums would light up with anticipation. Now more often then not the comments are negative.

Just my opinion, some of you will agree, some of you won't.

Dave

[gmelfissg]

hi dave,

post removed

[Steven Cedrone]

O.K., I want you all to take a step back from your P.C.'s and relax...

Don't turn this discussion into a flame war, the next post will decide if this thread gets locked or not :?

Steven Cedrone
Community Moderator

[Dave Conger]

Everyone should realize I took a chance with the earlier post. You might not agree, but there are good ways to talk about it, like Dave (Paragon) is doing. Don't think I can actually afford a $750 device nor would like it to be $750, but I see why HP would charge that much. There is little competition for that product...at this moment.

Well, Dave with a difference in the price tag of $650.00 CND and you look at many new PPCs coming out now with dual slots you can throw in a Bluetooth and/or wi-fi Cf card which means that you are still paying one heck of a lot of money for a fingerprint scanner.

Oh I totally understand what you are saying. But dual slots tend to add some size. Not always, but sometimes they do. I personally would rather have things integrated into my next device so I could use the expansions for memory or other things, but still have WiFi/Bluetooth. You have to figure that WiFi and Bluetooth cards (to buy both) would cost you about $200 + $100 (both US) for the finger print scanner, but since they are integrated they are still giving you an "extra" SD slot compared to other products.

The real question I don't think is "will it sell" I think it will sell. Will it command a large market share?.....Not a chance I don't think! You now have Dell, ViewSonic, Toshiba, XDA's, and a couple of others out there with very sellable products.

I don't think it will sell in a very high volume if they release 5 other devices at the same time. You have to figure this is going to be one of the higher if not the highest end product. General consumers are probably going to go for a lower end, cheaper product. HP will have some competition, but one thing I have notice about Compaq/HP, they usually have some good rebates up their sleeve...which could change the pricing right off the bat.

Look, my point is...the 3970 was $750 on release, which is a horrible price. But if this new 5400 series device adds on to it WiFi, finger print scanner, revised headphone jack, etc, you would think HP might push an $800 price point. If they are keeping there HIGH END PRODUCT at $700-$750 and are going to release four-five more devices at the same time, for a cheaper price...

[CoffeeKid]

Wow, people are bashing this because of price but if it is say a 5400 series product for around $700-750, I think that is pretty good actually. Fingerprint scanner, bluetooth, wi-fi, tranflective screen....show me another device that has those three built in and an SD slot!

Dave my comment was mainly based on Bell up here selling the Thera (I think? the audiovox PPC device) for something like $1200 currently, and locking you into a 2 year contract.

I dunno about you, but I don't usually keep a pda for two years.

And besides that, I've found that, by and large, the big three wireless telcos (Bell, Telus, or as I like to call them, Smelus, and Rogers) "don't get it" when it comes to pricing these devices with a lock-in contract like most of the US wireless telcos do. They also "dont get it" when it comes to when technology should be released, and it seems to me from the brief quotes in this story that Compaq/HP is leading them on down the slow and mosey road.

There are several devices in the global channel today that could be picked up by the Cdn telcos for wireless/pda functionality. Other than the Thera and some RIM devices (and a few palm products), the cupboard is bare up here... we don't have the O2/T Mobile device, we don't have anyone hinting at the Danger product (could be wrong on that, but I haven't seen it), and we don't have anything else. We have HP/Compaq, as close as IBM to corp-canada, leading along the major telcos saying "wait for it... it'll be good". But news: it will be overpriced, under-serviced, and excessively contracted. And die.

I sure hope Fido's got something to pull out of the bag in the next few months... the T68i phone is a nice start, but I'm hoping they will get one of the new gsm/ppc devices that seem to be popping up everywhere else

(fyi, Fido is the renegade, and sort of dying; them and Rogers are GSM. Bell and Smelus are CDMA).

Regarding the $1100 Cdn price for the new iPaq, considering what is coming down the pipe from Dell and Viewsonic and possibly a few other players, the price borders on obscene. I'm betting in a month or two, you'll be able to accessorize that $299 ($450Cdn) dell with maybe $175 worth of goodies and have pretty much everything the $1100 compaq has except the fingerprint stuff, AND get dual slots to boot. And have enough money left over to buy a couple of palm pilots or clies. :)

Mark[/b]

[Houston2006]

[quote=Jason Dunn]• A Wi-Fi version: Ships late November, availability in early December. (Just in time for Christmas!) It is expected to sell for about $1100.

The current currency for $1100.00 Candian Dollars is equal to $699.22 US Dollars. So if it will be $699.99 US Dollars. That would be nice to have before Christmas!