Tech news Web site VNU is reporting that palmOne is about to unveil a new category of digital devices it calls "mobile managers," which will apparently compete in the same space as the iPod. According to reports on other news outlets, the first of these will be the LifeDrive PDA, which Amazon added to its Web site over the weekend. By Monday afternoon, however, it appeared to be gone from the online retailer's product listings. palmOne said in a statement that it expects to announce the first mobile manager device later this month.

The LifeDrive, which will reportedly sell for US$499.99, features an Intel XScale 416MHz processor, a 4GB hard drive, a 320 by 480-pixel color display, built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking and support for MP3 files, according to other news articles. In the press release it issued, palmOne said that "mobile managers are designed for customers who are eager to take full advantage of the trend toward 'digital everything' -- from documents and email to music, images and video, as standalone files or in organized folders." There was no indication of Mac support for the LifeDrive or any of the other mobile manager devices.

Smarting from the recent loss to Research in Motion (RIM) as the top producer of handheld devices in the world, palmOne is apparently looking to expand its offerings into areas where it may compete with established brands, such as the iPod. However, it expects the mobile manager devices to complement its existing products, such as the Treo smartphone and its line of PDAs.