Hewlett-Packard Co duly launched the first of its new Jornada generation of handheld PCs yesterday. The first is a 2.5 pound system that HP dubs an email companion. The system has 10 hours of battery life when using Pocket Word, Microsoft Corp’s version of Word for handhelds. An optional extended battery pack increases life to 15 hours, without altering the size of the unit. Jornadas are the first HP products to use Intel Corp’s StrongARM chip, the 1101 running at 190MHz, and also include a built-in 56K modem and VGA-out port to support external monitors. Software, which run on top of Microsoft’s Windows CE Handheld PC Professional Edition, includes a dialup application for access to email and the Web, and software for synchronizing emails, documents and personal information with a desktop or notebook PC. The price is $999. HP will be competing with other Jupiter class devices using CE Handheld edition such as the near- identical Sharp Corp Tripad and Vadem Inc Clio, which both use the NEC VR4111 MIPS chip running at 85MHz, are slightly heavier at 3.2 pounds, and have a battery life of between 12 and 15 hours. Vadem used frog Inc, the design house most famous for the Apple Macintosh design, as a collaborator on the Clio. Sharp uses San Jose, California-based Vadem as a systems OEM.
