We carried news last week about several all-in-one devices that are not available in Hong Kong but have been launched in Singapore. All-in-one devices are basically personal digital assistants coupled with mobile-phone functions. The Hewlett-Packard Jornada 928 WD, Palm Tungsten W and Sony-Ericsson P800 were all launched in the Lion City way ahead of Hong Kong. In fact, HP's Jornada 928 WD will not be officially released in Hong Kong and both Palm and Sony- Ericsson, which launched their products last month, still have not confirmed dates for their products to ship here. Ericsson China vice-president Ulf Ewaldsson said the P800 would be officially launched next month. But thanks to the miracles of the grey market, all of these products are already on sale in Hong Kong. The Palm Tungsten W can be found in Windsor House for HK$4,900, Sony Ericsson P800 goes for a hefty HK$6,000- HK$7,000 in Mongkok, and the HP Jornada 928 WDA costs HK$6,280 at Fortress stores. Sony officials said the P800 had been delayed because the Chinese-language versions of the products for Greater China were not ready. Singapore was an 'easier' market as it had a mostly English-speaking population who were supplied with the European version of the P800. HP product marketing manager Eva Hui said the Jornada 928 WD was available only in two markets - Singapore and Britain - because it was not a pre-merger product and was the last of the Jornada range. The Tungsten W was the subject of much debate last week between the technology desk and Palm Hong Kong's public relations agency WeberShandwick. We were curious as to why Palm's device was launched first in Singapore, and when it would be launched in Hong Kong. Could it be that Hong Kong is considered a technology backwater without the network infrastructure or the tech-savvy consumers to appreciate the functions of the Tungsten W? However, we could not get a straight answer. A WeberShandwick PR executive expressed deep disappointment that we were running a review of the Tungsten W. She said we had the awful habit of running product stories as soon as we knew about them, rather than waiting for an official launch in Hong Kong. Perhaps she has our role confused - we are journalists, not Palm's marketing company. The Tungsten W, which resembles Handspring's year-old Treo 270, is available in Singapore for just under S$1,000 (about HK$4,436) through mobile carrier SingTel. Those looking for a Palm-based device with wireless connectivity might want to consider Sony's jet-black Clie PEG NZ90/H. But you will have to carry a separate Bluetooth- equipped mobile phone. The new Clie has almost everything you need - it runs Palm 5.0, has a superb 320x480 TFT display, a built-in two-megapixel camera with 2x zoom, Bluetooth and the new Memory Stick Pro. Sony opened up its Memory Stick format to developers last year so we might see a Memory Stick I/O GSM/GPRS module in future from third-party developers. It can also be WiFi enabled. The drawback is the price - HK$6,240. And unlike all the other players in town, Sony launches its products in Hong Kong first. Got a gadget idea? Drop Carolyn a line at carolyn@scmp.com
