Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp. today will announce a notebook PC that weighs just 2.2 lb. and can be converted into a tablet device with touch-screen and handwriting-recognition capabilities. The format is designed to appeal to users in health care and other vertical industries.
The new LifeBook P1500 will replace the P1000 model, of which more than 200,000 units have been sold globally over the past four years, said Paul Moore, director of mobile product marketing at Fujitsu's U.S. headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Although the P1500 will first ship with Windows XP Professional, Fujitsu plans to also make it available with Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC Edition operating system by year's end, Moore said. The new model, which has a list price of $1,499, is based on a 1.2-GHz Pentium M processor and includes an 8.9-in. screen.
The older LifeBook opens like a typical notebook PC, but the P1500 can be flipped open and swiveled to convert to a tablet format. That capability is something doctors who use the P1000 have asked for, said C.A. Nix, president of Medical Practice Technologies LLC, a Cumming, Ga.-based systems integrator.
Tablet PC technology, which was introduced in late 2002, has largely remained a niche product. "Microsoft had much higher expectations for Tablet PC than materialized," said Brian O'Rourke, an analyst at In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Nonetheless, the market for Tablet PC devices hit $1.2 billion in total sales last year, said O'Rourke. He predicted that sales will rise to $5.4 billion in 2009, as average prices for tablet devices drop well below $2,000 and more applications become available for them.
O'Rourke and other analysts said there already are a couple of ultraportable notebooks on the market that are similar in size to the P1500 but don't have its tablet capabilities.
Barry Zane, executive vice president of sales at Brandwise SSI Inc., a Lakewood, Colo.-based integrator of sales force applications, said the faster CPU in the P1500 will make it "truly a little computer." Zane noted that the P1000 sometimes takes two to four seconds to load new pages -- too slow for some applications.
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