HP Discontinues the iPAQ hx4700 Series (Again?)

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF09a/21675-21679-21679.html' target='_blank'>http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/e...1679-21679.html</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050602-HP.gif" /><br /><br />Steve Claxton wrote in to tell us that the HP iPAQ hx4700 series has been <a href="http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF09a/21675-21679-21679.html">officially discontinued</a> (wait, wasn't it already?). Without a decent replacement from HP, we could be staring straight down a tunnel o' doom as we settle for HP's less desirable offerings. Or actually, we could just settle for another manufacturer.

[Edgar_]

Two weeks after releasing Wm5 for it. How convenient. Now they won't have to release any updates/patches for WM5. *sigh*

[Chris Leckness]

There was actually a document just like this one on HP Portugal &lt;sp?> a few weeks ago, shortly after it disappeared from the HP websites to purchase.

[buzzard]

I don't find HP's decision to drop the 4700 particularly surprising. It's been out for awhile and needs a replacement (of course that may not happen anyway...it's not a converged device).

What I am still completely in shock over is that HP actually sold the Wm5 upgrade for the 4700 to their customers. What a complete abomination that application is. What was their development team thinking, that nobody would discover that it doesn't work right ?

[SteveHoward999]

What irks me is that just as we started to get great VGA PDAs the 'marketing' departments (I assume it was them) decided we didn't want such devices so development was cut on them .. so no more E830, no more 4700 etc.

I live in hope that this type of device quickly gets a resurrection - converged or not, but I prefer to have the choice - because many of us WANT and NEED high-end devices.

Seems like Dell are the only ones who recognise this, although if rumour is to be believed they are going the converged device route too ...

[Kamokazi]

At CompUSA we stopped receiving new 4705's somewhere around August or September, I think. Our 1955's, 2495's and 2755's are now flagged as discontinued as well, although that only indicates that CompUSA has decided to no longer carry them (at least in my 'level' of store). However, just a couple days ago, we received a 2495'B', which has 192MB of ROM as opposed to 128MB. The HP website now reflects the new value, but they don't show a 'B' on the model number. Anyone else notice this?

[RKosin]

So long, we have hardly knew ya :?

[tnelson2000]

HP exists to make a profit. If they were making big $$$ on the xh4700, they would continue to make it. My guess is that they don't know how to make a VGA device at a cost that can compete with Dell. . . so, they are giving up. They will probably soon fail at the convergence thing as well; what does HP know about making and selling phones?!

After applying the tweaks found on the web, my 4700 w/WM5 works well. What really makes it sing is XCPUScalar with its Auto Scale feature. I think the device is great, but I purchased it before Dell offered an alternative. I wouldnt pay $600 for a 4700 today when a Dell is available for much less. Plus, Dell seems to value their customers more than HP. I doubt that I am alone; thus HP is just another 'whipped puppy.' It is tough to admit defeat, but I might say, "Game Over." Will the last one out of the old Ipaq factory please turn out the lights?!

[bystander]

Could you detail the tweaks that you made on your 4700 which were successful for you in getting responsiveness and speed back?

It would be VERY helpful to the rest of us.

Thanks so much.....

:idea:

[ipaq_wannabe]

and that is why i chose a Dell... hehehehe...

:evil:

the HP model was not only too expensive, based on previous experience with my ol' 3850 - HP Support s**ks...

[tnelson2000]

The summary of Tweaks I found is at:

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?t=219171

However, (and it may be my imagination), but xCPUScalar did the most for performance. The strange thing is that I seem to need the 'Auto Scale' feature selected. I would think that setting the device to 624mhz with no auto scale would provide the best performance. I sent a question off to xCPUScaler for an explanation, but I have not heard anything back yet. I will post it if they ever answer. Maybe they don't really know; they may not have a hx4700!

Why do we need to spend extra money on xCPUScalar, backup softwaer, etc.? My guess is that HP wanted to get this port done and just made sure the thing didn't crash. Optimization was not an issue to HP becasue they had a way for us to back out WM5. Plus, HP was discontinuing the product. My conclusion, HP seems to have a very short term and narrow view.

Why would I say this? Well, more than a year ago I purchase an HP factory refurbished laptop. As it turned out there was a known bug that caused the machine to power off when large memory blocks were copied. This only happened if you used a few programs like Photoshop, and both memory banks were full. This problem was well documented on HP's web site. But they took a machine and stuck it back in a box and sold it again as 'factory recertified.' Was this an honest mistake? Maybe. Or did they think that the next customer may not experience the problem within the 90 day warranty period? Or, did they just not have the means to track rev level hardware problems and communicate them to their refurb people? Although HP replaced the system, but it was not without much time and effort on my part.

I tended to give HP the benefit of the doubt until they followed up with the hx4700 WM5 upgrade promise! As a software developer/consultant, I recommend hardware to corporate America. HP may think that they are only losing me as a customer, but they don't seem to want to quantify the cost of losing 'good will'. . .my recommending other vendors. This is their choice; the good news is that we all have alternatives!

[Clarkster]

I've never had to use HP's customer service, and so from my naive and simple experience, I've loved my 2210 and 4700 - they've revolutionised my life. I'm not one of these readers who has a new device every couple of months, or that feels the need to converge - so I'm expecting to enjoy my 4700 for a few years yet. And in that time span who knows what may have come along. So discontinuing isn't going to cause any ripped out hair here - everything's eventually discontinued, isn't it? And you never know, from that episode in the autumn, it may not even be true!

[spaceweasel]

HP deserves a class action lawsuit for the 4700 fiasco that all of us have been following. It was, easily predicted, they had no intention of properly supporting the hx4700, and would just throw out the promised upgrade (and have the nerve to charge us for it) late enough that HP could wash their hands of it. I will never buy another HP product (unless they do something to fix this with their customers, which, I believe, won't happen in this universe).

Good Bye HP.