Fujitsu Announces Ultramobile PC Tablet

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp. Tuesday announced a 1.56-lb. miniconvertible computer that will sell with a price tag of US$999 when it goes on sale in September.

The LifeBook U810 is the first of its size to combine tablet touch-screen convertibility from a clamshell with ultramobile PC size, said Paul Moore, direct of mobile product marketing at Fujitsu in Sunnyvale, Calif.

It enters an ultramobile PC market that includes the OQO Inc. Model 2 and the FlipStart by Vulcan Portals Inc., Moore said.

The U810 has a QWERTY keyboard that works when the clamshell design is opened, but also allows touch-screen input from a finger or pen. It also can be converted to a tablet PC by twisting around the 5.6-in. screen and laying it back on the keyboard.

The device runs standard notebook applications and will run a choice of Windows operating systems: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Moore said.

With 5.5 hours of computing life from a four-cell lithium-ion battery, it will exceed some standard laptops, Moore noted. The device has 1GB of memory and 40GB of storage capacity.

Fujitsu also announced a 3.52-lb. LifeBook T2010 tablet PC with a 12-in. display that is on sale now starting at $1,599. It features unusually prolonged battery life of nine hours with a standard battery, and runs Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Moore said.

The LifeBook T2010 can support up to 160GB of storage with a maximum of 4GB of memory.

The T2010 supports 802.11 draft-n wireless and Bluetooth, while the smaller U810 supports 802.11a/b/g wireless.

Moore said tablet PCs have not performed in the market as well as vendors would like. However, he predicted that including touch-screen capability within the Vista operating system, instead of separate from Windows XP, will improve adoption.

"Vista will help the tablet PC," he predicted, noting that Fujitsu had the first tablet PCs, which have come into use in a number of vertical business markets, including health care, where doctors and nurses use the touch-screen capabilities.