Taiwanese hardware maker Asustek Computer is gunning for a slice of the market for PDAs (personal digital assistants) with the long-awaited launch last month of its MyPal A600, based on Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 software and a 400MHz XScale processor from Intel.
Asustek, in Taipei, is best known as one of the world's largest motherboard makers but has also made a name for itself selling laptops under its own brand in markets such as China and Taiwan. The company has flirted with entering the PDA market for months, showing off prototype devices at the launch of the Chinese version of Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 software last year and at the Computex exhibition in June.
Measuring 75mm wide by 125mm tall by 12.8mm thick, the MyPal A600 weighs 138 grams, sports a silver aluminium alloy case, packs a 400MHz PXA250 processor from Intel, 64MB of RAM, 32MB of flash ROM, a 3.5-inch TFT (thin film transistor) LCD with 240x320 pixel resolution, and a battery that enables the device to run continuously for 15 hours, according to Asustek. The MyPal A600 also offers a Compact Flash card slot alongside an infrared port and a serial port.
Pricing and availability were not immediately available.
