While we wait for Mobile Internet Devices powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon solution, the chip company isn’t sitting on the sidelines. Today, Qualcomm announced their Kayak PC alternative to help emerging markets navigate the web’s choppy waters. According to the company, "the Kayak PC alternative fills the niche that exists between desktop PCs, which normally require landlines or seperate accessories for connectivity, and Internet-capable wireless devices." Based on the reference design features, the quote sounds like another name for a small and portable 3G-connected low-end net appliance.

The design is powered by Qualcomm’s dual-core Mobile Station Modem MSM7xxx-series chipset which provides both the computing power and the connectivity. It also offers:

• A full featured Web 2.0-capable browser from Opera
• Display output support for television and computer monitors
• Support for standard keyboard and mouse input solutions
• A music player and 3D gaming

Actual specifications are scant after that meager and general list, and while it doesn’t sound like a high-end solution by any means, it’s not meant to be. Qualcomm expects that the first units will see Southeast Asia’s CDMA2000 and WCDMA (UMTS) networks. It’s interesting to note that Inventec will produce the first units; we’ve seen mobile products from them in the form the Kohjinsha devices as well as the HP Mini-Note.

As far as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset, it sounds like folks are lining up to produce devices based upon it. Qualcomm indicates 15 device manufacturers are Snapdragon customers and I’m sure you’re recognize a few: Acer, Asus, HTC, LG, Quanta, Samsung, Toshiba are among the bunch. I’m looking forward to seeing what products we’ll see: expect power-efficient handhelds running at 1 GHz, integrated 3G & WiFi, aGPS, hardware accelerated 3G graphics and display resolution up to WXGA or 1280×768.