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T-Mobile and Hewlett-Packard introduced the iPAQ h6315 Pocket PC Phone late last summer to a great deal of fanfare. Finally, the biggest selling Pocket PC vendor had entered the smartphone market.

Last week, it became apparent that T-Mobile, still the only mobile operator in the U.S. to support h6315, had stopped selling the once highly touted handset. It no longer appeared on the carrier's Web site or, many report, in T-Mobile stores.

Reportedly, the h6315 didn't perform in the marketplace as expected; most likely due to the lack of a built-in keyboard and some early performance problems.

Although the smartphone shipped with a keyboard attachment, many prospective customers apparently passed on the h6315 because the keyboard wasn't physically merged into the unit like with Research In Motion's BlackBerry series, palmOne's Treo 650 or newer Pocket PC Phones (e.g. Sprint's Audiovox PPC-6601 and Cingular's Siemens SX66) that even implement retractable keyboards.

And even though HP released a patch to fix the h6315's performance and stability bugs, T-Mobile never made the ROM update available to subscribers.

Rumors circulating in January said Cingular might soon support two new iPAQ h6300 models, the h6325 (with camera) and h6320 (without camera). So far, nothing has come of those reports.

Down, Not Out
Early last month, HP announced plans to roll out a slew of new cellular-wireless handhelds in the coming year. It said these devices would incorporate several different types of wireless technologies and be offered in a variety of designs and sizes.

A couple of weeks later, the computer giant introduced the first model in this onslaught, the iPAQ hw6500 (also known as the iPAQ Mobile Messenger). Unlike the h6315, the hw6500 incorporates a built-in keyboard


iPAQ Mobile Messenger

The hw6500 also integrates two memory card slots, one for Secure Digital cards and the other for miniSD cards. It supports Bluetooth wireless, but not Wi-Fi, and is the first handheld of its type with a square 240 x 240 pixel resolution display. It should run on a 520 MHz processor and measure 4.5 x 2.8 x 0.63 inches.

HP said the hw6500 would ship during the second half of April from an as-of-yet unnamed carrier for about $600. Since HP is using high-speed EDGE network support (average speeds of 100 kbps to 135 kbps) as a selling point for the smartphone, the most likely candidate would be Cingular in the United States because of its fairly wide deployment of the technology.

The device also integrates a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver for navigation and location services with NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) standards support. Even though it lacks an external antenna, the company asserts the smartphone still gets good reception from GPS satellites. Where that isn't possible, the hw6500 turns to cell phone tower triangulation to determine locations.

To help fulfill the Messenger part of its name, HP announced the hw6500 would deliver expanded Microsoft Exchange and Outlook support, plus compatibility with Good Technology's GoodLink software for 'push' based wireless access to corporate e-mail, calendar, contacts, and other data.

'Pushed' data is sent automatically to a mobile device, as opposed to requiring users to request the information. The most well known example of 'push' e-mail is RIM's BlackBerry solutions.