No VGA Pocket PC from HP in the near future? A rant on the lack of new VGA Pocket PC's

http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122024

The iPAQ hx4700, despite its problems and weaknesses (touchpad, lack of jog dial), was one of the best VGA WM2003SE Pocket PC's (mostly because of its gorgeous, bright 4" screen), next to the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 720. No word has been heard lately about HP's plans of a new, high-end (that is, a VGA), WM5 Pocket PC, which would be a successor to the hx4700. No official announcements, no FCC documents, not even rumours/leaks. The lack of leaked information clearly shows that there indeed won't be any new high-end VGA Pocket PC's from HP (do you know any Pocket PC that we, thanks to the unofficial leaks and rumours, didn't know of months before its release?) Now, BrightHand forum member mace01 was told by some HP people that HP considers the low-resolution (which certainly doesn't appeal to anyone wanting a nice almost-a-desktop-replacement high-end PDA) QVGA Pocket PC, the hx279x, the successor of the high-end VGA hx4700. This is certainly bad news and, in effect, further narrows down the choice to just four major PDA manufacturers (Acer, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens and HTC). The situation is even more dire if you take into account that HTC only has one VGA device, the Universal, which, because of its physical parameters (for example weight), price and comparatively slow, 520 MHz CPU, may be not the ideal PDA, particularly if you, like me, just don't need its phoning capabilities or built-in key/thumbboard. The same stands for Acer: much as the new Acer devices are, dimension-wise, both very nice and lightweight, they still heavily lack at, for example, ROM size (even the "bigger" model, the n311, has only 128M of Flash ROM; the 64M ROM in the n310 is just not sufficient if you plan to install several programs on your PDA), CPU speed and compatibility with certain usage areas (you can only use the infrared remote controller NoviiRemote on Samsung CPU's – other apps aren't supported). That is, if now somebody wants to get a really high-end (624 MHz CPU, 256Mbytes of ROM, double-wireless etc.) WM5 VGA device and the HTC Universal is too expensive/big/heavy for him/her, he or she either gets a Dell Axim x51v or, particularly if he/she needs built-in GPS, a hopefully Widcomm BT stack with BT 2.0, support for 802.11g (as opposed to b), (hopefully still) better battery life, screen and USB hosting capabilities and doesn't mind the lack of the CF slot, the missing 2700g/VGA output and the higher price outside Europe, keeps waiting for the Fujitsu-Siemens N560. Good old days... a year and a half ago we had very interesting and heated discussions about which VGA Pocket PC to buy of the Toshi e830/iPAQ hx4700/Dell Axim x50v/F-S PL720/Asus a730(w) group. Then, there were an abundance of new, "cool", high-end VGA Pocket PC's, making one's choice very hard. It's really worth comparing the number of "Which VGA device for me?" threads (I've collected some of them for example here) from one year ago to the present, much more dull situation. An interesting thread on this trend can also be found here. Recommended links: Every (Current) VGA Pocket PC Compared F-S N560 vs Acer 300