Many enterprises are also looking at portable systems other than notebooks. Tablet PCs may be an alternative for many users, particularly those who need to work with large amounts of text or numeric data away from their desks. Tablets, which are designed to mimic the dimensions of a large paper notebook, include an operating system that lets users jot down information with a stylus. Mike Stinson, vice president of mobile products for Gateway, predicts that pen-based input will be a requirement of most portable system users by 2005. "It's just an easier way to take notes," he observes. U.S. tablet PC shipments are set to climb from 260,000 units in 2003 to 2.25 million in 2005, according to statistics compiled by IDC (a sister company to CIO's publisher). State-of-the-art PDAs are also gaining traction in many enterprises, thanks to their low cost, small size, wireless connectivity and miserly power consumption.
A New Look
As the design of PCs changes, an emerging display technology is poised to provide better viewing. Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) promise to revolutionise both desktop and mobile systems by offering ultrathin, bright and colourful displays without the need for space-hogging and power-consuming backlighting.
OLEDs are already popping up on a few mobile devices. Eastman Kodak, for example, has released a digital camera, the EasyShare LS633, that features an OLED preview screen. Future OLED panels could find homes on products ranging from desktop and notebook PCs to PDAs to smart phones and a wide array of office and consumer appliances. In fact, the displays are thin and light enough to be plastered onto a wall like wallpaper or even sewn into clothing.
Still, despite recent technical advances, OLEDs won't reach PC users in meaningful numbers this year. That's because researchers have yet to develop screens that are larger than a few inches in diameter at a price point that's even remotely competitive with liquid crystal display technology. "We're still a long way off from OLED in a laptop," says Sam Bhavnani, a senior mobile computing analyst at competitive analysis company ARS.
06-10-2004, 08:18 AM
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