MiTAC Announces Two New Pocket PCs, One With Built-in GPS

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4366.html' target='_blank'>http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4366.html</a><br /><br /></div>MiTAC has developed a counterpart to the Garmin iQue for Pocket PCs: a unit with built-in GPS capability. Like the iQue, it has a fold-back antenna; apart from that, it's a fairly mid-range PDA, with a 300MHz XScale chip, 64MB of RAM and SDIO.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20031201-MitacMio168.jpg" /><br /><br />In addition, they released a compact PDA: the Mio 336, which is only .5" thick and weighs 4.1oz. For those who want more information, MiTAC's <a href="http://mitac.mic.com.tw/digiwalker/products/main.htm">Chinese-language</a> page has more information; their English site hasn't been updated yet.

[whydidnt]

AND,

It's supposedly not going to be released for the US market. :devilboy:

Is there something about the US regulatory climate that is prohibitive to the manufacturers of many of these cool devices? I'm thinking about the Sharp handhelds, many mini-sub notebooks, and of course most of the most feature rich cell phones.

Or, is the US market really not that good for these type of gadgets? :cry:

There has to be a significant business reason that these corporations chose to ignore a large, fairly wealthy country, doesn't there?

Whydidnt

[Janak Parekh]

Or, is the US market really not that good for these type of gadgets? :cry:
:cry: I have a feeling these companies think the US market isn't worth the cost of setting up shop here.

Of course, it's a chicken-and-egg problem: without such devices here, demand will never build up, so they'll never be carried. Or something like that.

--janak

[ATraveler]

It seems that the companies feel that there is no demand for these products in the US. If one, for example, were to look at dynamism.com one would see many of the cool "Japan only" gadgets are made by companies with a huge US presence (e.g. SONY, Panasonic etc). Similarly, products (e.g. the SONY TR-2) are oftened configured differently for the US market than they are in Japan. I'm sure they have done a cost/benfit analysis and decided against introducing these products into the US for sound business reasons.

[sliaa]

I bought a pair of Nike running shoes "Air Zoom Seismic" that has a very wild color combination (and style, too) during a trip to Asia. When I came back, I was curious about the shoes as many of my colleagues asked me what it is (and I was asked in McDonald/post office, too). So I did some research and found that the shoe style, though an American brand (Nike), has very limited sales here in the US (a poor saler, as quoted in one of the US web sites). However, it's so popular in Asia that many of the wild colors (such as mine) are only available in Asian markets. There are fans web sites dedicated to diff colors/styles.


I am just totally confused. Is it just popular to the dozen people I met ?? If they really sale the shoes in the US, would it be a hit or not ??

Well. enough side tracks. But this just remind me something after reading the posts.

[sliaa]

it's probably diff cultures that caused this. Does not matter if it's the tiniest Sharp handhelds, Mitac PPCs, or my Nike shoes.

So that's why dynamism.com exists :-)

[klinux]

The worse thing is that they include US map?!? Although, in my experience, GPS can be CPU intensive when plotting and recalculating routes (using deluo, Axim 400 Mhz, and Pharos CF GPS) so I am surprised that they did not go with a 400Mhz CPU.

Lastly, dang, that Air Zoom Seismic is ugly! I am glad they don't sell it here. Sorry Sliaa. :mrgreen:

[sliaa]

Mine has the color called "B Brasil" with fresh yellow body and green "fish bones" on the sides. It's for the Brasilian team during the world cup. Special limited edit. :-)

There was a bid on ebay some time ago.

[Skoobouy]

I just have one thing to say:

The Jornada lives. Long live Jornada!

[maximus]

Huh, what happened to the long awaited Mitac mio 728 ?