InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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April 2, 2001 |
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What Works In Rough Environments Or Heavy Data Entry
By Norbert Turek
hile mainstream businesses are still testing the waters, handhelds have made their mark in areas such as field maintenance, transportation, shipping, and inventory. But the devices used in these markets often require special attributes, so companies such as Symbol Technologies Inc. have built good businesses around making handheld devices ruggedized--waterproof, dirt proof, and unbreakable.
Symbol is a 25-year old company that specializes in devices that optically read bar codes, including its new two-dimensional PDF 417 bar-coding schema that packs more information into a smaller space. It's also built a brand of ruggedized products such as the Netvision phone, which costs around $900, and the Dataphone, which has a scanner, screen, and voice-over-IP phone networking. Its Palm-based products include the SPT-1500, which is a Palm V with a scanner, and the SPT-1700, which is a ruggedized Palm with local area and wide area network radio-transceiver capabilities.
Sears Corp. liked the SPT-1700 series enough to order 15,000, says John Gibson, director of product marketing in Symbol's mobile computing division, and the U.S. Department of Defense recently contracted to buy Symbol devices for all aspects of its field logistics.
Sales, field maintenance, and reporting are the sweet spots for pen-based tablet computers such as Fujitsu's 10.4-inch screen Stylistic line of Windows-based computers powered by 400-MHz Intel Pentium III or Celeron processors. The Stylistic, which weighs about 2 pounds, is typically bought in conjunction with software developed and installed by third-party vendors of industry-specific applications.
Pen-based computers could disappear over time as smaller devices take over, says Gartner VP of mobile computing Ken Dulaney. That may be true, says Tom Bernhard, director of strategic product planning at Fujitsu Personal Computer Corp. "When third-generation wireless services are really pervasive, it may be possible to have a big-screen tablet with a low-power processor that's essentially a thin client." But Bernhard says that's at least three to five years off, and IT departments will need the new 3-G infrastructure to support portable thin-client computing.
Still, Bernhard says new tablet computers offer a better value proposition. More powerful processors, better battery life, and hot-syncing capabilities have created an alternative to carrying multiple devices. "In the past, tablet computers have lacked the computing power to serve as legitimate laptop replacements, but that's changed," Bernhard says. He also points to Microsoft's initiative to support the pen tablet as the platform of choice for future knowledge workers. "And we'll be there to service that need," he says.
Unlike smaller handhelds that find their way into businesses through employee, rather than company, purchases, tablet computers and Symbol's devices usually involve both the IT department and business decision makers when they're purchased. "In our sales cycle, it's about return on investment," says Bernhard. "There's a pilot project and, if it's successful, a major purchase. The idea might be bottom-up, but the decision to buy is top-down."
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