HP has posted a Web page for the hw6945 and a sister device, the hw6940, which doesn't integrate a camera for security conscious enterprises. And, according to Brighthand, the site at one point said the Mobile Messenger would ship on September 13th for $600; although that information appears to have been taken down now.

The company first introduced the hw6900 series way back in February at the 3GSM show in Barcelona, Spain. It looks very similar to past Mobile Messenger offerings like the hw6515—same square 240 x 240 pixel resolution, 64k color 3-inch display and a QWERTY thumb-keyboard, for example—but it has something past iPAQ phones didn't, four types of wireless networking: cellular (of course), GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

A quartet still not commonly found one place in smartphones released in the U.S. Much more easily found elsewhere, however.

PDAStreet got an early look at one a few months later.

The new iPAQ could prove popular to customers of a GSM operator like Cingular, who have thus far been shut out from the latest round of keyboard smartphones like Palm's 700 series Treos and Motorola's Q, all three offered exclusively by CDMA carriers in the U.S.

It is expected to join a slew of other smartphone models that are expected to soon find a home with America's largest mobile operator. These include the compact Cingular 3125 flip phone, aka theHTC Star Trek, and Nokia's E62, yet another communicator built in the style of the BlackBerry or Q.

More on the hw6900
As with the earlier hw6515, the new iPAQ's dimensions and weight, at 4.6 x 2.8 x 0.7 inches and 6.33 ounces, are more PDA-like than phone-like.

HP moved this Messenger up to Windows Mobile 5.0 with support for the Exchange Security Feature Pack and Direct Push on-device client, putting BlackBerry-like mobile messaging front and center for the hw6900. It also works with Good Technologies GoodLink push e-mail and data synchronization service.

Inside the new iPAQ is 128 MB of ROM and 64 MB of RAM (45 MB of memory available to the users, down from 55 MB in the hw6500) plus a 416 MHz Intel XScale processor, up from 312 MHz in the previous model. Unlike the hw6500, HP didn't go with two expansion slots. It nixes full-sized Secure Digital cards, leaving support only for the miniSD variety.

The Pocket PC Phone's 1.3-megapixel camera has a flash, and being Photosmart compatible enables users to capture and share photos and videos wirelessly.

HP rates the new iPAQ's 1200mAH removable battery for 4 hours talk and up to seven days standby time.