Siemens' mobile phone & PDA Hybrid

Siemens will be the first to hit Australian stores with a combination mobile phone and PDA in late March.

Based on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system, the SX45 is a mobile phone which offers mobile access to the web, WAP, e-mail, and SMS at the same time as running the full set of windows programs.

"The real application here is wireless internet," according to Siemens Product Manager Tarquin Swift, "I think most people will still choose to have a separate phone for their telephone calls, because the whole design has an underlying data emphasis and the phone functionality won't operate without earpiece," said Swift.

Though many people have been waiting for the first PDA with mobile connectivity to come to market, Swift does not expect consumer demand to be the driving factor behind SX45 sales. "We expect sales will be driven by the business to business corporate sector, where there are many needs and specialised applications. Things like allowing executives to be on-line when they are out of the office and to enable the road warriors of the workforce to be more productive - to be able to log into corporate intranets, check stock levels and that type of thing."

The GPRS capability means the SX45 is always on to receive e-mail and it can also provide remote access to corporate LANs or Intranets via the HTTP Browser. The SX45 has a range of entertainment features including an MP3 player, video player (MPEG 4) and a range of games which can be played quietly using the SX45's stereo headset.

The Siemens SX45 will be available from late March with a retail price of $2,199.