The recent theme for Pocket PC vendors has got to be "lower the cost." Dell released details of its entry into the market with $199 and $299 Intel XScale-based devices, while Microsoft and Samsung have made available a new Pocket PC concept design that aims to lowers costs and reduce product development time for mobile device.

This week, Hewlett-Packard released some details of its entry into the low-cost sweepstakes, the iPAQ H1910. The new device is slated to include an Intel XScale processor at 200MHz, 64MB of RAM and, like the iPAQ H3900 series, a 3.5-inch transflective TFT display, which we feel is the best PDA screen currently on the market. The device also features a Lithium Ion battery and an SD/MMC epansion card slot. Unfortunately, it has been reported that the new model won't be compatible with current iPAQ expansion sleeves. The device measures 4.5 x 2.8 x 0.5-inches and weighs 4.2 ounces.

In addition to the iPAQ H1910, the company plans to release a new high-end $699 model, the iPAQ h5450, which is slated to include fingerprint-scanning biometric security and two kinds of wireless access technologies. We'll report more details on HP's new iPAQs and Dell's new Axim X5 Pocket PCs next week when both companies officially launch them during COMDEX next week.