Business briefs for August 27, 2004

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.

HP unveils iPod clone

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co. unveiled today its own version of the iPod portable music player, showing the fruits of a groundbreaking partnership it had previously announced with Apple Computer Inc.

HP is now taking orders for the player, which it has dubbed the "Apple iPod from HP" -- and not the "hPod," which became the unofficial nickname soon after the two companies decided to pair up.

The licensing deal is a break from Apple's usual isolationist stance and helps it capitalize on the broad retail reach of HP, the world's largest computer printer maker and second largest PC maker.

"Clearly Apple has done a great job of making the iPod popular, but we have a wide distribution globally, so it'll really help in driving up the volume," said Vyomesh Joshi, an HP executive vice president.

Customers to gain Wi-Fi access

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Sprint Corp., the No. 4 U.S. mobile- phone company, said its customers will get access to 2,300 public wireless Internet connections run by SBC Communications Inc.

The accord boosts by 75 percent the number of wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, sites available in coffee shops and other public places to Sprint customers, said Wes Dittmer, head of Sprint's Wi-Fi unit. SBC users can browse the Web and view files at five Sprint locales. He declined to disclose financial terms.

U.S. Wi-Fi sales may surge to more than $1.5 billion a year by 2008 from $33 million this year, said Pyramid Research, helping phone carriers compensate for a slump in wire-line services. Second-quarter sales of local calling, the main business at San Antonio-based SBC, dropped 6.5 percent. Sprint's long-distance sales fell 6.6 percent.