ViewSonic Displays Its New Devices

NEW YORK -- ViewSonic may be known for making displays, but the company is looking to move beyond that market. On Tuesday, the company announced its entry into the consumer computing device market, unveiling a Tablet PC and a personal digital assistant at the TechXNY conference here.

The company unveiled the ViewPad 100 SuperPDA and ViewPad 1000 Tablet PC, designed for mobile enterprise users. Both products will be priced around $1000, ViewSonic says.

The ViewPad 100 supports personal information management, wireless e-mail, wireless Web access, and server-based enterprise applications, ViewSonic says in a statement.

The ViewPad 1000 leans more toward a full notebook, but includes stylus support and integrated digital photography, the company says.

The ViewPad 100 runs a 206-MHz StrongARM processor from Intel, uses Microsoft's Windows CE operating system, has 32 MB of Flash memory and 64 MB of SDRAM.

It features a 10-inch thin-film transistor touch screen, universal serial bus, and infrared ports. The ViewPad 100 also includes Internet Explorer 4.0, Pocket Word, an MP3 player, and handwriting recognition software.

The ViewPad 1000 uses Intel's 800-MHz Mobile Celeron processor and runs Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system. The 1000 also features 128 MB of SDRAM (expandable to 512 MB) and a 6GB hard drive. It also has a built-in digital camera with photo-editing software, wireless local are network connectivity, a 10.4-inch touch screen, Microsoft NetMeeting, and a virtual keyboard.

The ViewPad 100 weighs less than 2.5 pounds, while the ViewPad 1000 weighs about four pounds. Availability of the products was not immediately known.