HP hasn't exactly set the world of handhelds on fire since the ‘demise’ of the PDA. It's not for lack of trying, however. The computer and printer giant has released a number of smartphones over the years and, according to an announcement today, it isn't about to give up now— even in the face of stiff competition from the likes of the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian platforms.

HP's unveiled a pair of new smartphones: the Data Messenger and the Voice Messenger. Although both run on Windows Mobile 6.1, the former leverages the Professional Edition of the platform and the former the Standard Edition. So the iPAQ Data Messenger sports a touch screen, while the iPAQ Voice Messenger does not.


                                                                             iPAQ Data Messenger

The smartphones are different in other ways as well.

Most importantly, the Voice Messenger is tablet-style communicator with a small QWERTY keyboard under its QVGA 2.4-inch display like the RIM BlackBerrys, Samsung BlackJacks and MOTO Qs of the world. The Data Messenger, on the other hand, offers a larger landscape-style keyboard that slides out from under its 2.8-inch QVGA touch screen.

Other than differences outlined above, the two new iPAQs are quite similar.

Both integrate GPS, a 3.1 megapixel camera, and a microSD slot for storage expansion. There's 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM internally.

The quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM world phones support tri-band (900/1900/2100 MHz) HSDPA 3G for cellular-data transfer speeds up to 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 with support wireless stereo headsets.


          iPAQ Voice Messenger

Vodafone in the U.K. is set to become the first carrier to launch them November. The Data Messenger will go for £399 and the Voice Messenger £333 without a service agreement.

Unfortunately for anyone interested in either the Data Messenger or the Voice Messenger in the U.S., HP has not said when or even if they'll become available in the this country.