Qualcomm beats 3Com to Palm-cellphone debut

3Com CEO Eric Benhamou's comments earlier this week that his Palm Computing subsidiary is working on a Palm-based cellphone appear to be a little late. Phone maker Qualcomm already offers one: the pdQ Smartphone, available in 800MHz and 1900MHz versions. The phone looks like a standard cellular handset, but the numeric keypad folds forward away from the body of the phone to reveal a Palm III touchscreen. The CDMA-based phones are currently available now from a limited number of CDMA-supporting carriers in th North America, such as AirTouch. Apparently prices range from $500-1000, depending on the carrier. ®