Compaq to ship Windows handheld this year

In a prepared statement, Compaq said the product will offer seamless linking and synchronisation to other Windows-based systems, as well as PIM, word processing and spreadsheet app-lets, an e-mail client and an Internet browser.

Andrew Seybold, editor-in-chief of US newsletter The Outlook on Communications and Computing, said he expects several hundreds of thousands of Windows CE-based devices to be sold inside the first year. However, despite being a booster of the technology, Seybold criticised the fact that Microsoft's Schedule+ is the only PIM that integrates with CE out of the box.