HP's iPAQ Business Messenger Smartphone UnveiledHP's iPAQ Business Messenger Smartphone Unveiled

Hewlett-Packard is looking to pry that BlackBerry out of your hand with its upcoming iPAQ 910 smartphone.

The company's touting its latest smartphone as a productivity booster with a full QWERTY keyboard, 2.4-inch touchscreen, track wheel for navigation, and the capability for 7.2 Mbps downlink with HSDPA wireless technology. By comparison, BlackBerry's latest device, the BlackBerry Bold, tops out at 3.6 Mbps on a cellular broadband network.

The iPAQ also features quad-band GSM/EDGE radios, which makes the phone usable in most countries. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, has a 416 MHz Marvell PXA270 processor, 128 MB of RAM, 256 MB of ROM, and has a microSD slot to expand the memory.

HP's latest smartphone also comes with integrated Wi-Fi, GPS capable of turn-by-turn directions, Bluetooth v2.0 support, and USB 2.0 for syncing and charging. Workers on the go can utilize Office Mobile to edit documents, read e-mail and browse the Web.

It also sports a 3-megapixel camera and features an on-board microphone. This can come in handy with the built-in Cyberon Voice Commander and Voice Reply functions, which allow for hands-free operation.

The iPAQ 910 is expected to ship July 30, and is currently listed at $499.99.

HP faces many challenges if it's hoping to dethrone Research in Motion with business users. This device was originally announced last September but multiple delays have pushed it back. While it's no slouch in the features departments, it may not have a feature that will get IT departments to prefer this device over a BlackBerry.

Additionally, mobile workers may be drawn to the sleeker iPhone 3G now that it has faster wireless Internet access and will have a host of business applications.