COMMENTARY--There's a new generation of machines out there that split the difference between laptop PCs and handheld PDAs--call them "tweeners." Question is, what are they good for?
Are you a "tweener?" That is, could you use a computing device that's smaller than a traditional laptop but does more than a PDA? Do you wish there was something on the market that fit between those two portable extremes?
"Tweener" is the term that's been coined to describe machines that aren't PDAs, but aren't mini-notebooks, either. Right now, these machines are niche products more likely to be provided by your company than something you'd buy for yourself. But if they catch on, more consumer-friendly models might emerge.
Later this month, for example, NEC (a company from which you'd probably never thought of buying a computer) plans to release the MobilePro 900, which looks like a mini-PC. It's got an 8-inch screen, weighs 1.8 pounds, runs on a 400MHz Intel XScale processor, and comes with an optional 10- to 16-hour battery. It runs a PDA operating system (Windows CE), and comes equipped with pocket versions of Microsoft's Office applications. The price should be US$899.
The Sharp Actius PC-MM10, which has been out for a couple of months, looks more like a standard notebook, except that it's about a half-inch thick. It has a 1GHz Transmeta CPU, 256MB of memory, a 15GB hard drive, and built-in Wi-Fi. It also comes with a docking station for synching with your desktop.
Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures has been showing a new mini-PC design to hardware vendors, looking for a bite. Vulcan's mini-PC runs Windows XP and includes a hard drive (the MobilePro 900 doesn't) and a 5.7-inch touch-screen. Price? US$1,200 to US$1,500, when and if a manufacturer is found; Vulcan says the mini-PC could be available in early 2004.
One idea behind these machines is that, while most buyers are well-served by the form factors we already have, others require something more specialised. These niche buyers need to use job-related apps often and anything else rarely to not at all.
If you're working in, say, a busy hospital, a PDA may be too small to keep track of, too attractive to thieves, or too delicate for the rigours of the job. If you're a salesperson, you might want something lighter than a PC without sacrificing the keyboard. Or maybe you're in IS and want something that'll run your company's line-of-business apps without the expense of a full-blown notebook.
There've been tweener products before, but they've never caught on outside such vertical niche markets. The success of the Microsoft-based Tablet PC, while modest, has piqued the interest of PC manufacturers. They'd love to find something PDA-like that end users would pay for themselves.
But the question that must be overcome if ordinary business users are to become interested in tweeners is a simple one: Why would I rather have this than a notebook I can buy for the same or less money?
Another company I've been following, OQO, has impressed some people with its answer to that question. This time last year, the company made a splash with a small modular PC design. The idea was that you'd carry your computer from place to place and connect it to a keyboard, monitor, etc., wherever you happened to be. The OQO also has a small built-in screen, ostensibly so you could use the thing when you weren't near a desk, but I never understood the real usefulness of it.
A number of bright people, including my pal Rob Enderle of Forrester Research, initially fell in love with the OQO. But I remain skeptical. The fact that the company has yet to ship machines suggests my skepticism was matched by the marketplace.
Still, if any company produces a tweener that corporate consumers will purchase, OQO could be the one. My understanding is that it is privately showing around such a machine.
Today's tweeners aren't for everyone, but they've come a long way from the models of years past. It's an area worth watching because someday soon there may appear a model on which business people would be willing to spend their own money. But it just hasn't happened yet.
What do you think? Would you buy a tweener? Why or why not? Tell us your thoughts at edit@zdnet.com.au
