Verizon combines phone, PDA

by Jennifer Jones

March 5, 2001 —

VERIZON WIRELESS ON Friday debuted a device that packs functionality of both a wireless phone and PDA.

The new handset,dubbed Smartphone (or Kyocera 6035), will cost about $500. Smartphone comes equipped with a large screen and supports several Palm applications.

Verizon Wireless, in Bedminster, N.J., claims to be the first carrier to hawk wireless phones that double as PDAs.

Smartphone enables the use of Palm applications such as secure transactions, spreadsheets, word processing, and the sending and retrieval of e-mail.

Verizon now ranks as the nation's largest wireless carrier with 27.5 million subscribers and a footprint that stretches across 90 percent of the United States.

InfoWorld