Microsoft is finally making its entry into the CDMA market; Samsung's new i700 runs Pocket PC Phone Edition, does tri-band CDMA and 1xRTT, and even boasts a digital camera.
At the Consumer Electronics Show today, Samsung finally officially announced the development of the i700 - a Pocket PC Phone Edition device of which a version made for Spring was previously exposed courtesy of U.S. regulatory organ FCC. Likely to be sold through Sprint in the U.S., the i700, or SPH-i700 as the Sprint model name will be, marks Microsoft's entry into the CDMA market as the first officially announced Phone Edition device with CDMA support.
 | Samsung's new i700 is the first Pocket PC with an integrated digital camera
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Samsung will feature the i700 in its demonstrations at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week, showing off capabilities similar to those of already available Phone Edition devices operating on GSM/GPRS networks. One option that's not similar to any other previously launched Pocket PC, however, is the integrated digital camera of the i700.
Unfortunately, the technical specifications of the i700 were not available at the time of writing, but its digital camera will be able to take pictures at VGA resolution and makes Samsung the first Pocket PC manufacturer to integrate one rather than rely on expansion solutions to provide such functionality.
Mobile versions of Microsoft's Pocket Outlook, Pocket Internet Explorer, Pocket Word and Pocket Excel will all be bundled with the SPH-i700 as with other Phone Edition devices, as well as Windows Media Player, Microsoft Messenger and others. Also present in the i700 is a speakerphone feature to allow users to conduct hands-free conference calls while simultaneously accessing files and information from the Pocket PC applications.
In related news, Hitachi is also expected to unveil a CDMA Pocket PC Phone Edition device later today, which will also be the first Pocket PC to sport an integrated thumbboard. Also - although no official announcement is expected - Taiwanese manufacturer HTC has received approval from the FCC for a device codenamed 'Falcon', which is essentially a CDMA version of the company's Wallaby and Spaceneedle reference design which has served as the foundation for devices such as the O2 XDA and T-Mobile MDA.
Samsung did not provide any information regarding the pricing or availability of the i700, although the device is expected to be available in the first half of 2003 given its approval by the FCC.
A hi-res picture of the Samsung i700 is available on the following page.
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