Mobile PDA in your Palm !!

[TechBoy]

Business travellers are the target for PalmOne with the launch of a portable GPS-enabled personal digital assistant (PDA) which is intended to guide them around 100,000 towns across 16 European countries.

 

The Tungsten E edition for Europe PDA is loaded with the ViaMichelin GPS navigation pack and is designed to tap into the growing market for mobile navigational devices.

 

Chris Jones, an analyst at research company Canalys, says: “GPS navigation is emerging as one of the most important applications for handhelds. We expect the handheld navigation market to exceed one million units in Europe this year, and it is vital that vendors offer easy-to-use, bundled solutions.”

 

This is what PalmOne claims to have done with its Tungsten E edition for Europe which, unlike many alternative solutions, is not permanently fixed into one vehicle. This product can be moved from company car to hire car, and can also be used by pedestrians.

 

The full-colour device has 32MB of Ram and has expansion slots to enable other mapping systems to be loaded onto the device, in addition to the far-reaching Michelin package.

 

The PDA also comes equipped with voice guidance, to help users reach the target location even easier. PalmOne says the device will be “competitively priced” but exact figures are still to be confirmed.