"For the first time, they have a screen based phone that also can communicate over the WiFi wireless network. So it's starting to show that the boundary between what's a phone, what's a PDA... that's being blurred using the richness of the Windows CE.Net"
The Nexio, which will ship later this year, is bigger than a typical handheld... a lot bigger than the typical wireless phone... but Samsung Digital Media CEO Daeje Chin points out...
"Three or four years ago, there was no connectivity with handheld PCs, so that's why it failed. And PDAs... the screens are too small. They don't have a full Internet browser. And this has got a full Internet browser which means you can surf the Internet or connect any enterprise computer system."Audiovox is taking another approach... building a PocketPC device that ships with separate wireless phone. VP James Daurio...
"We've built software into the PDA and our phone so that you can plug the two units together and surf the Internet without needing anything else. You'd simply get into your PocketPC, launch your Internet Explorer and be on the Web wirelessly."
The Maestro will be sold through wireless carriers, including Sprint and Verizon. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.