HP beefs up its mobile range

Hewlett Packard expanded its presence in the mobile world at 3GSM in Cannes today with the announcement of a raft of software and services for mobile devices.

The long-awaited upgrade to its Jornada PDA was just one of the improvements to HP's mobile E-services architecture.

The Jornada 928 WDA is being touted by HP as the first full-colour GSM/GPRS integrated PDA and mobile phone, based on Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone edition software.

Orange confirmed it was in discussions with HP to pilot the device with data and voice services.

Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP, has been anxious to increase the company's 5.4 per cent share of the handset market in an effort to close the gap with rival Compaq - whose iPaq holds 9.8 per cent of the market.

HP's announcement significantly beefs up its fast-growing telecom business.

The company also unveiled web-services software based on HP Netaction and OpenView, Java-based services for phones and voice services managed through its E-services Bazaar.

This means mobile developers and ISV communities will be able to benefit from an array of applications to test and deploy mobile services as they search for new revenues in a market undergoing one of the worst slumps in a decade.