Taiwan flocks to MS Smartphone standard

Might i remind readers that microsoft is being sued over this - by a company very close to my home town of birmingham. I personally believe microsoft are going to get flamed for this big time - it must a be massivly major if a company is dropping a brand new product before its launch. This article goes on to say how the Taiwanese market might be $$$ if the smartphone standard takes-off properly.

"Digitimes, the Taiwanese newswire, which reports two new licencees for the Microsoft smartphone: notebook maker Compal and mobo giant Asustek. They join HTC, also of Taiwan, maker of the Orange SUV Windows-based smartphone. Details of the Asustek smartphone are, shall we say, scant - Digitimes says merely that it should launch sometime in Q2, 2003, before moving swiftly onto the firm's new PocketPC PDA.

Compal already makes mobile phones as a sub-contractor, around 800,000 a year, according to Digitimes. And it actually launched its MS Stinger smartphone - on Christmas Day. The handset uses a TI OMAP710 processor and will retail at $500-$600. Volume production - c.3,000-4,000 units a month (sounds tiny to us) - kicks off in January. Sensibly, Compal is again taking the sub-contractor, rather than own-brand route, with its MS smartphone. The Taiwanese firm is talking to a handful of US and European networks and handset vendors to take on the phone, Digitimes says.

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