At 2003/03/17 20:24:11 John Ankcorn wrote:
jca>
jca> For clamshell products in the future, I honestly don't know
jca> what the current chances are. Although there is a very strong
jca> (but small) market for sysadmin type usages, the main product
jca> line effort seems to be aimed at integrated pda/communications
jca> devices. I think that this market is quite well defined
jca> and solid and hope that there is a home for it somewhere
jca> inside HP!
"pda/communications devices. " "Daar zegt U zo iets " goes the saying here in Holland , freely translated "There you have it !" Communicators !
Currently , there's only Nokia's 9210/9290 , wich suffers from some severe shortcomings compared to the 7** models
1 Proprietary operating system and file formats
2 Ergonomic issues ( no touchscreen = certain functionality only available through complicated keyboard shortcuts or not accesible at all !)
3 Limited memory
4 Bluetooth ,GPS , GPRS , CDMA and WiFi require additional box connected through IRDA or cable
Well here's my pick :
Keep the current form factor and size
Replace the "dumb " passive matrix CSTN and CCFL backlight by an "intelligent" active matrix DSTN and LED backlight (as used on SHARP's SL-C700 )
This makes room to integrate Bluetooth and WiFi antennae and chips in the lid of the device
Double up the PCMCIA slot to allow a TDMA/GPRS/HSCSD and a CDMA card to be inserted and used at the same time
Provide support for combocards like the Nokia D211 ( and similar products from the other Symbian partners )
That it becomes thicker in the process , so it be , this is a small price to pay for simultaneous use of two cards
Voice support for both built-in modem as well as cards ( latter may require a headset supplied by card manufacturer )
Provide support for MMC as well as CF in bottom card receptacle
Make the ROM a plug-in module (slot behind the battery , so preloaded ROMS can be shipped to both corporations and end users )
Make the specs available from DAY ONE to both the Open Source as well as the MicroSoft/Palm community
Provide at least 128 MByte RAM Broadcast-quality voice recorder
Fully supported USB host port instead of serial port
Processor should be 400 MHz X-Scale to provide complete hardware compatibilty with 5400 series iPaq and Sony's PEG -NX/NZ/TG series
Builtin device manager , independent of operating system
WindowsCE environment should include all libraries to allow applications written for PocketPC to run
Installer that can handle .exe as well as .cab installation archives , allowing it to be used in Mac and UNIX environments
Self-contained ActiveSync , allowing use with non-partnered desktop or workstation
Include an improved version of HP Macro , as found on the 680/690 series with possibility to export/import macros as plain text files and with a "waitfor " [string] function to create connection scripts
Device Manager ( essentially something like the BIOS on a PC ) to allow device configuration/reset before starting the OS as well as "debricking" by the user or the sysadmin without having to send it back
k
Received on Fri Mar 21 2003 - 21:04:09 EST
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