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ViewSonic, best known for computer monitors and displays, is dipping into the handheld market, announcing a low-cost Pocket PC device scheduled to ship in November.

With a price tag of $299, The ViewSonic V35 Pocket PC is expected to the be the least expensive Pocket PC handheld on the market, said Ed Suwanjiandar, product manager for Microsoft's mobile devices division. He called it a "sweet spot" price that would put it in better competition with devices that run operating systems from PalmSource.

"We're taking price away as a point where we've been disadvantaged," he said.

The ViewSonic V35 Pocket PC will weigh 4.9 ounces, include a 300-MHz Intel XScale processor, and have 32MB of flash memory and 64MB of RAM. It will also feature a 3.5-inch, 240-by-320 pixel LCD, and support 64,000 colors. It will come with an SD expansion slot, speaker, headphone jack, microphone, and a jog dial.

ViewSonic said it would ship a custom PowerPoint file viewer and a picture viewer application with the ViewSonic V35 Pocket PC.

Prices to Drop

Pocket PC devices typically are released with a price range of $399 to $799, depending on their features, such as wireless connectivity and display quality. The devices can fall in price as they near the end of their life cycle. However, within the year some analysts expect prices of new products to drop in line with ViewSonic's personal digital assistant (PDA).

"We know that there is going to be some price erosion as new products come out in the next year," said Randy Giusto, vice president of personal technology and services at IDC.

The low price of the handheld is due mainly to decreasing component costs, Suwanjiandar said. Displays, flash memory and microprocessors, which account for the bulk of the hardware costs, have been coming down in price as the market grows, he said.

"Memory prices aren't as wacky as they were in the past, and there's more integration at the chipset level so the component count is going down," said Giusto. "It's just basic cost evolution."

Aligned with Microsoft

ViewSonic is one of 29 hardware makers to license the Pocket PC operating system, according to Microsoft. While ViewSonic has made its business primarily on the sale of monitors and displays, the company has committed in the past year to releasing devices based on Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system as well as its Mira software, which can be used to build PCs that sport wireless monitors.

ViewSonic's Pocket PC device is expected to begin shipping November 1, in time to target holiday shoppers. A week later, a number of Microsoft's hardware partners are expected to launch Tablet PC devices.

The devices will be sold in North America initially, according to ViewSonic. They are expected to reach Asia by the end of the year, and Europe during the first quarter 2003, the company said.

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