Ex-i-mate CTO leads Velocity Mobile into the Windows Mobile market with two powerful devices

I expected to hear about Windows Mobile 6.1 and some new device announcements out of CTIA this week, but was caught off guard when a new Windows Mobile company appeared and announced a couple of devices that look quite compelling. Velocity Mobile announced that they were designing and selling new devices manufactured in Taiwan by Inventec Corporation and were launching with the velocity 103 and velocity 111.

The velocity 103 is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (touch screen) device with a Qualcomm MSM7201 CPU (speed not stated), 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, 2.8 inch VGA (640x480) display, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1, quad-band GSM with tri-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA, integrated GPS, microSD card slot, 2 megapixel camera, 1450 mAh battery, and some kind of enhanced Today experience. This device is scheduled to launch soon (2nd quarter of 2008) and will sell as a SIM-unlocked device with no carrier obligations.

The velocity 111 looks to be a BlackBerry competitor with an integrated QWERTY keyboard (and it too has a Pearl-esque trackball), same Qualcomm MSM7201 CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, microSD card slot, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1, same quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA, integrated GPS receiver, 2 megapixel camera, 1450 mAh battery, and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. The velocity 111 is scheduled to launch in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

The specs and photos (check out Dieter Bohn's hands-on gallery) of these devices look awesome with all the wireless features you could ask for and a couple of great form factors. I look forward to seeing these devices and trying them out. It seems like these two devices throw in everything that power users have been asking for and in two form factors with the only form factor missing being the flip or slide open full QWERTY keyboard, but maybe that is coming next.

So who is Velocity Mobile? Well, here is where it gets a bit interesting since the president is David Hayes, who was most recently the Chief Technology Officer for i-mate. i-mate shut down almost all of their U.S. operations just a month ago and Inventec was the manufacturer of the i-mate products after HTC stopped making devices for i-mate. I was never very impressed with the quality of the i-mate devices after they switched away from HTC. Hopefully, under the direction of David Velocity Mobile can work with Inventec to create some solid products.

There are several other leaders at Velocity Mobile from A Living Picture (David's company before he went to i-mate) and Microsoft themselves so it looks like they have the people needed to be successful.