Jenneth.Info has this scoop on the new Motorola MPx200 Smartphone - she tells us that the launch date in Australia looks to be end of November. This is exciting for a number of reasons, not least of which is that this is a "recognizable" name brand which perhaps will improve the overall playing field with regard to support and marketing!

In addition, I received an email only yesterday from O2 Asia - the guys who won't give a Windows Mobile 2003 upgrade to the existing O2 XDA in spite of its overall improvements. But this is a much more interesting email than the last one I quoted:

I would perhaps be a little more enthused if it weren't for this one line:

"The new products will be launched in the following countries in stages November 2003 through December 2004."

What? Over a year!?!?! And Australia's near the end of the list.. oh dear, oh dear. Looks like O2 still have some lessons to learn. I really hope I'm wrong and Australia gets first dibs. But based on previous experience, I won't be holding my breath.

The XDA II is a really exciting device - read the review at PPCW.NET to see just how exciting its potential is. I for one certainly hope that it will rectify the flaws of its predecessor. But I do ask myself: given the poor marketing and support currently available, how likely is this to change overnight?

I went to myxda.com and filled in their little survey. I'll be very interested to see if my comments make any difference - I basically submitted a summary version of everything I've said on this site about the poor support.

Marketing and support are the two essential factors for the success of a device. So far it seems to me that the O2 commitment to the Asia-Pacific region with this device is somewhat marginal, and when we are able to do a review of the XDA II - hopefully sooner rather than later - this will ideally be a factor we will consider in the review.

Other than this little fly in the ointment, I'm very excited by the prospect of competition to the QTek 7070. The Motorola MPx200 should be a much-needed shot in the arm for an otherwise poorly represented market, and we hope to be able to give you our own take on the device as soon as it's generally available here. When eventually the O2 XPhone arrives, the MS based Smartphone market may really start to open up. And perhaps we'll even see an Orange release of the SPV e200.

So far, though, I've not heard anything about the possibility of a competitor to the O2 XDA or XDA II. All I can do at this stage is hope and pray. The XDA II really sounds cool. But we need a Motorola or Samsung to come along and make the PDA Phone market start to become viable - with an ultimate goal that companies such as Dell begin releasing low-cost versions and driving prices down!

It will be very interesting to see the impact of the "version 2" devices - the XDA II in particular. In terms of firmware, I certainly hope that O2 have learnt their lessons from the previous device (especially the Radio) - because this won't be anything but a niche device until its reliability is comparable to any other phone on the market.

I imagine that for the Smartphone arena, the "version 2" devices certainly should learn their lessons. Motorola as a serious phone company should be smart enough to ensure that radio problems don't exist, and O2 - having sat back and learnt from the Orange SPV and QTek 7070, not to mention the XDA - should be able to get it right.

Well, after all - I am an optimist at heart :-)