HP’s Oak makes an appearance in the relentless binge of new handset madness that is the Vodafone roadmap. The HP Oak delivers many of the baubles we’ve come to expect from Windows Mobile devices, things like 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, quad-band GSM, qwerty keyboard, a touchscreen, and even GPS have found there way in. Other connectivity options include the almost standard WiFi and Bluetooth, with chatter time listed as 3.5 hours and 360 hours standby. We’re feeling a lot of similarities between this fella and the HTC TyTN II, but the HP gets the puffy rainbow sticker — with prancing Pegasus, of course — for opting to add that ultra-handy dialpad on the front. Oak’s due date is set for September 2008 at roughly $500.

Once the glittering crown jewel of the Windows Mobile world, HP has sat back, taken it easy on R&D, and watched its empire dwindle to an empty husk of what it once was. The reasons are unclear, but other manufacturers have certainly had no qualms about rushing in to fill the void — most notably HTC, the ODM largely responsible for HP’s success in the first place. Does it stand a chance of reclaiming the throne? Eh, with so many competitors in the game at this point, probably not, but that may not stop it from trying. Rumors have been swirling the last few days that HP will surround its iPAQ 510 Windows Mobile 6 Standard smartphone with a wide variety of devices positioned both above and below it, and if the details pan out, there could definitely be a few winners in the bunch. The 600 series is said to be similar to the 510 in form factor — candybar with a numeric keypad — but will add tri-band HSDPA, a touch sensitive navigation wheel, double the RAM and ROM, and will sport Windows Mobile Professional in place of Standard. The 900 should be largely similar, but trades the numeric keypad for a QWERTY version. Word on the street is that these should be announced in September with availability late in the year — if it all turns out to be true, we wish the best of luck to ya, HP!

The new version of operating system is destined to fill the time gap between Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile Photon (Windows Mobile 7.0?). Truly significant updates are few, which, on top of that, are aimed at reacting to the change in the market environment. Early in 2007 Microsoft is thoroughly revamping its software range with Windows Vista, Office 2007, MS Exchange 2007. Therefore, against such impressive background an updated version Windows Mobile was simply bound to come out.