Although there have been persistent rumors that Casio was abandoning the Pocket PC space, Casio has actually announced a new Pocket PC for the Japanese market. The new device is the E-3000, a device running Pocket PC 2002 with all of the features that are now standard with high end devices.

A quick preview of the specs for the E-3000 reveal that it will sport a 400 MHz XScale processor, 64 MB of RAM, and 32 MB of ROM. The screen isn't anything special. It is the standard 3.5" semi-transflective TFT display that is becoming very popular. A nice feature of the E-3000 is that it has both a CF II and a SD/MMC slot built in.

Battery life on the E-3000 is reported to be excellent with boasts of more than 1 hours of battery life. This is excellent for a Pocket PC, but the E-3000 does gain a little size in order to work in the larger battery. It measures .5 cm x 7.8 cm x 1.8 cm. The weight of the E-300 is also a little more than I would like coming in at around 190g.

The E-3000 should be available to Japanese consumers around March, but I do not expect to see the device in other markets.