O2 delivers Windows PDA/smartphone

They really must be busy over at the Taiwanese HQ of phone manufacturer HTC. For in addition to T-Mobile confirming today it is going to ship HTC's MDA IV 3G Windows powered mobile, another network has announced that it is bringing that model's predecessor to the UK.

Already on sale in a number of guises including the MDA III (T-Mobile), the device will now be available to O2 subscribers as the XDA IIi.

The feature count stays the same though. So the XDA IIi boasts both GPRS and Wi-Fi, an Intel PXA272 processor that runs up to 520MHz, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth and much else.

The device runs on the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC, phone edition platform and offers all the Windows staples such Outlook, Pocket Explorer, Windows Media for audio and video and Messenger.

At Nokia, Profits Trump Phone Styles

A QUARTER OF AN INCH may be all that it's taken to turn shares of Nokia (NOK), the world's largest cellphone maker, from a high-flyer into something resembling a value stock.

That's the difference in thickness between Nokia's chunky 8800, one of its slimmer phones, and the ultra-svelt Slvr phone from Motorola (MOT), the world's second-largest manufacturer.

Investors, worried that Nokia's clunky phones can't withstand Moto's style lead, are valuing the Finnish giant way below Moto, assigning its stock a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 13x next year's expected earnings per share -- below not only Moto's 18x, but also the.

New Xdas announced from O2

O2 has announced that it will be releasing an updated version of its Xda II later this year - the Xda IIs. The smartphone is to include a slide out QWERTY keyboard as well as the long-awaited 802.11b wireless connectivity.

Although it won't be available immediately, O2 has revealed that the handset will also feature BlackBerry push email service. O2 is suggesting that RIM's Connect software should be added to handsets at the start of next year (and presumably you'll be able to download the software for free if you've already forked out for the new handset).

Expect to see the updated phone over here in November for around 449. A further model, the Xda IIi, will follow the upgraded model. This will include a faster 520MHz Intel PXA270 processor and a 1.3-megapixel camera.

New handsets from Siemens

During the SK65 launch yesterday, the guys at Siemens spent a good deal of time insisting that the company is not about to get sold off or shut down. They did admit that things hadn't gone too well for them in the past year, though - what with software issues, handsets that were late to market, and (we're guessing) the disappointing standard of some of the phones, especially the SL55's chunkier SL65 upgrade. To reassure us of Siemens Mobile's rude health (number 2 in Europe, number 5 in the world), they announced that 15 new handsets would be heading our way between now and Christmas. So what can we expect? They weren't giving much away, but we know that there will be more slider phones (hopefully to rectify the SL65 chunkiness), a clamshell and at least two 3G handsets. Siemens wouldn't be drawn on whether a Wi-Fi handset is on the card, saying only that more announcements would be made at Cebit (so that's a yes then).