Europe must wait for new Compaq gadgets

Compaq has added a portable music player and web access device to its iPaq handheld device range, but Europe will have to wait until next year to purchase the new gadgets.

In a US conference call this afternoon, Mike Winkler, senior vice president and group general manager at Compaq's commercial PC group, said the new iPaq products are targeted at new markets, new uses and new categories of users.

"This is just the beginning. We are planning to launch more iPaq products and services over the next few months," he said.

The iPaq Home Internet Appliance is a "web in a box" device geared towards simple, instant internet access and is tightly integrated with Microsoft's MSN Companion Service. Mike Larson, vice president and general manager at Compaq's consumer products group, said: "You literally plug it in and turn it on - practically instant access to the net."

The device is automatically updated over the internet, a facility which Larson said provides "virtual obsolescence protection".

iPaq Connection Point is a firewall-protected wireless home hub providing a central narrow band or broadband connection for networked devices around the home.

Compaq also launched the iPaq Personal Audio Player, which allows users to download multiple digital music files from their PCs.

However, despite all these products becoming available in the US in the next couple of months, European customers will have to wait until the beginning of next year, a Compaq spokeswoman confirmed.

The company has admitted that it is struggling to meet demand for its iPaq Pocket PC-based handheld device and is opening up further production lines and supply locations to cope. It launched the device based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system in April this year.

Neil Dagger, senior product marketing manager at Compaq, said: "With the improvements in the Pocket PC operating system over Windows CE and the faster 206Mhz StrongArm processor we added, the product has hit a sweet spot that appeals to a whole new set of purchasers."

But Dagger said the product's popularity had led to some customers waiting up to two months for delivery. "Demand is much greater than we were led to believe it would be," he said.