Stinger phone tips up in Holland

O2, FORMERLY BT CELLNET, has quietly launched its cellular enabled PDA, the xDA, in the Netherlands before making it available to British, Irish or German customers.

This makes it the first Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition to ship (it officially launched on 27th May). This is something of a blow to the guys and gals at Sendo in Birmingham, England who were pretty positive that they were going to be first out with the Z100 and Stinger - the code name for Phone Edition.

Dutch users who want to own an xDA will have to pay in the region of 499-719 Euros for the privilege.

While the xDA sports an industry standard SD/MMC style slot it also boasts a proprietary 22 pin expansion slot. At this very moment, therefore, O2 is talking to several OEMs looking to source a number of accessories for the xDA. Prime candidates for such accessories will be a Bluetooth interface and a digital camera, of course.

Following the lead set yonks ago by Palm, the xDA will be supplied with a cradle to allow synchronisation with a desktop PC. The standard cradle will attach to a USB port but for those old fogies with ancient PCs or laptops, there will be a serial version too. The official launch date for Brits and Germans for the xDA is still sometime this Summer. We can hardly wait... µ

www.online.o2.nl/productinfo/xda