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Motorola's enterprise mobility business unit (formerly Symbol Technologies) is now offering CDMA/EV-DO 3G wireless technology as an option for its rugged MC70 Enterprise Digital Assistant, which has been available for about a hear now. Previously, the handheld only supported GSM/EDGE 2.5G cellular-wireless technology.

By adding support for CDMA/EV-DO Motorola should greatly increase the market for the MC70. Before, companies with contracts with the likes of Cingular Wireless (now AT&T) and T-Mobile could leverage the device. But now, those contracted with the likes of Verizon Wireless and Sprint, at least half of the U.S. market, for their cellular-wireless voice and data services may now leverage the M70 without changing carriers.

The MC70 is meant for indoor and outdoor use throughout a number of different industries (e.g. field service, field sales, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, government and retail) performing applications like asset management, parcel delivery, direct store delivery, medication administration, fleet management and mobile point-of-sale.

The company says the MC70 can withstand frequent drops to concrete and exposure to water and dust. Specifically, a 4 foot drop to concrete, 6 drops per 6 sides over its 14°F to 155° operating temperature range; and a 5 foot drop to concrete, 2 drops per 6 sides at an ambient temperature of 73°.

There's 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi with VoIP support and Bluetooth to wirelessly connect to a variety of accessories, including scanners. Inside, the handheld uses a 624 MHz Intel XScale processor, 64 MB RAM, 128 MB ROM and Windows Mobile 5.0.

It has a 3.5-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution touch screen and a SDIO slot for memory and peripheral expansion. A Lithium Ion 1900 mAh battery powers the MC70, but a higher capacity type is available as an option. Users also get two keyboards to choose from, a 26 Numeric key type or 44 QWERTY key model.

The unit measures a relatively compact - for a rugged corporate handheld - 6.0 x 3.0 x 1.5 inches and weighs 11.2 or 12 ounces (deepening on options included).

The MC70's list price ranges from $2,845 to $,3195 , depending on configuration.