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Hitachi is targeting corporate users with its first PDA, combining Microsoft's Windows CE .Net operating system, Intel's XScale microprocessor, and a built-in wireless LAN modem. The device will ship in April this year, the company announced Tuesday.

Hitachi hopes to sell a range of services alongside the PDA, for example offering access to intranet applications, says company spokesperson Emi Takase.

Plans for a launch outside Japan are currently under consideration. The company says naming a price is difficult because the PDA will be sold bundled with services--although it expects the PDA portion of the overall bill will be around $380.

Hitachi's NPD-10JWL "mobile multimedia communicator" is based on an Intel PXA250 XScale microprocessor, and features 32MB of RAM and a 3.5-inch, 240 by 320-pixel reflective LCD capable of displaying 65,536 colors. It has slots for Multimedia Card and Secure Digital expansion cards, a mini Universal Serial Bus connector and a headphone socket. It weighs 5.6 ounces and measures 3 inches by 4.3 inches by .7 inches.

The Hitachi PDA will face strong competition. Local offerings from Sharp, Casio Computer, Sony, Toshiba, and Fujitsu are battling against competition from Palm and Handspring, although none of these are yet focusing on the business market. Their competition for the consumer space has led to very low prices, however, with Palm offering its entry-level M100 PDA for $37 in Japan.

Hitachi first unveiled a prototype of the PDA at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January this year and has formed a new subsidiary, the Net-PDA Venture Company, to handle development of the PDA and complementary services.

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