One of the first devices to combine mobile phone technology with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking is the centerpiece of HP's new lineup of iPaq PDAs, which the company is expected to announce Monday.

The iPaq h6315 was developed in partnership with T-Mobile USA Inc. and allows users to make phone calls over T-Mobile's GSM/General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network. It can switch between those WAN technologies and the LAN connections provided by Wi-Fi chips, and also use wireless peripherals equipped with Bluetooth technology, said John Dayan, senior director of HP's handheld and wireless business.

Most analysts feel that the growth opportunities for PDA vendors lie in converged devices such as the h6315 that allow users to run applications and communicate with the outside world on a single device, instead of forcing users to carry a PDA for applications and information management in addition to a mobile phone. PalmOne's Treo 600 was one of the first of these converged devices to catch on with a mass market, and the h6315 takes the capabilities of that device one step further with the ability to connect to 802.11b wireless networks.

This device is meant for business customers who are constantly moving between different operating environments, Dayan said. Its suggested retail price of $599 is competitive with the Treo 600.

The h6315 comes with Texas Instruments Inc.'s OMAP1510 applications processor. It features 64M bytes of synchronous dynamic RAM, 64M bytes of flash memory, a 3.5-inch transflective TFT display and a Secure Digital I/O expansion slot.

HP is expected to announce four other iPaqs on Monday. The hx4700 will be one of HP's more powerful PDAs, with a 624 MHz XScale applications processor from Intel and a 4-inch VGA (640 pixels by 480 pixels) display, said Eric Kilponen, director of product marketing for HP's handheld product business. The company envisions the $649 hx4700 as a mobile application development platform, he said.

The h6315 and hx4700 are two of HP's most impressive devices to date, said Todd Kort, principal analyst with Gartner in San Jose. "I expect they'll both do very well, given their price points," he said.

But HP missed a beat with its other three new PDAs, according to Kort. The new rz1700 and rx3000 series PDAs are a step backwards for HP in terms of industrial design, an extremely important factor among PDA consumers, he said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.