No iPAQ rx4000 for You!

Over the weekend, handheld enthusiast web sites based in the U.S. and Europe (including this one) were caught off-guard. Asian sites were full of reports of a new iPAQ, but there was little or nothing about this upcoming device available in other parts of the world.

The reason for this has just emerged, and an email from an HP spokesperson says it all:

The rx4000 is a regional product available in the APJ [Asia Pacific Japan] market. It is not available outside of select countries in APJ.

It's possible that a version of this device will be released in additional countries, but the spokesperson from HP is unwilling to talk about this.

An Overview of the iPAQ rx4000

As its name suggests, the iPAQ rx4000 Mobile Media Companion will be focused on multimedia. Naturally, this handheld will come with the mobile version of Windows Media Player, which can handle both music and video. 

It will run Windows Mobile 5 and come with a suite of productivity applications, like Microsoft Office Mobile, a web browser, and an email application.

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Reportedly, the rx4000 will use a 400 MHz processor from Samsung. It will have 64 MB or RAM and 128 MB of ROM.

In addition, there's strong evidence at this point that at least one version of this handheld will offer 1 GB of internal storage.

This upcoming device will have a 2.8-inch, QVGA touchscreen. It will also have two forms of short-range wireless networking: Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

HP plans to introduce this handheld some time next month. Prices will start at $299.

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