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HP handhelds don't live up to claims

Hewlett-Packard acknowledges its new Microsoft-powered PocketPC doesn't deliver the full color experience due to a change in hardware specifications.

3 min read
Hewlett-Packard has acknowledged its new Microsoft-powered PocketPC doesn't deliver the full color experience HP promised because of a change in hardware specifications.

Although HP is working to correct the problem, the mistake may derail the positive momentum being generated around Microsoft's latest venture into handheld computing.

The new HP Jornada 540 series Pocket PC handheld device offers a roughly 4,000-color display, the company confirmed today, rather than the 65,000 colors the company initially promised and advertised--a resolution the new Windows CE operating system supports.

The lower-resolution display is not capable of showing the detailed graphics of some high-end applications or the full graphics of Pocket Internet Explorer Web pages, HP says. These applications were among the most promoted improvements of the recently released Pocket PC.

The problem is a result of a mix-up in the development process. A 16-bit component was inadvertently replaced with a 12-bit component, according to the PC maker. The scrawnier chip irreversibly truncates the code that displays color. The problem cannot be fixed via upgrades, and the company is still evaluating its options in reimbursing affected customers.

"We are very sorry this error happened," said Elaine Gasser, the North American marketing manager for the Jornada group. "We do want customers to know that we hope to maintain them as customers."

Many HP customers and handheld users had taken to newsgroups and message boards to vent about the situation, although several credited HP with handling the situation quickly.

HP has posted a notice on its Web site, is alerting registered customers of the problem and has changed the wording of advertisements and product literature, Gasser said. The company will decide by the beginning of next week what type of refund, if any, will be offered to affected customers.

"HP apologizes for any inconvenience and confusion caused as a result of this unintentional error," the bulletin says.

The embarrassing display problem comes on the heels of the Pocket PC launch last month. The high-profile kickoff at Grand Central Station in New York was pushed back several months to appease manufacturers and make sure the mistakes which have plagued the Microsoft handheld division in the past would be avoided this time around.

Windows CE devices have been criticized in the past for offering bells and whistles at the cost of usability, and customers have complained the operating system is difficult to use, buggy and sometimes won't synchronize with the desktop version of Windows.

Microsoft and its partners launched the new devices with a new brand name and promises of improved designs, simplified interfaces, and fancy new features, to mostly positive reviews. Microsoft executives were candid about the company's previous failures in its campaign to catch up to market leader Palm, which currently holds about three-quarters of the market for handheld devices, according to International Data Corp.

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The new Pocket PC advertising campaign, which features the tag line, "Can Your Palm Do That?" hypes the high-end graphics and Web capabilities of the new handhelds, which are apparently not compatible with the buggy HP displays.

"That was a big part of the push," said Matt Sargent, a handheld analyst with ARS. He added that many Palm users would not even notice the difference in displays, because Palm has focused on simple tasks rather than the fuller functionality of Microsoft's Pocket PC.

"The type of people that buy these systems, these higher-end handhelds, that customer set is very high," Sargent said. "They're going to notice the difference."

Microsoft product manager Phil Holden, who before the launch touted the improved integration between the software from Microsoft and the third-party hardware, had no comment on HP's situation other than to note that the OS, and devices from Casio, are still capable of displaying 65,000 colors.

"This is an issue every time you have a disjointed OS and hardware type of system," Sargent said. However, because the problem is with the hardware, Microsoft may be able to avoid embarrassment.

"HP doesn't have a history of doing this, they have a pretty strong base," he said. "But if it had been a Microsoft or Intel problem, it would be viewed differently."

Further minimizing the impact of the display glitch is the fact that few applications actually take advantage of the highest screen resolutions, said Ken Dulaney, an analyst with Gartner Group.

"I just don't think there's a lot of applications that take advantage of it," he said. "The full-motion video applications and video Web casting applications for the Pocket PC are just nonexistent."