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Windows CE 3.0 May Eclipse Traditional Notebooks

Upgrade of OS for handhelds will allow full-size monitor, USB ports.

By Dan Briody, PCWorld   

With Windows CE 3.0 (code-named Jupiter) slated for release this summer, and a host of PC vendors lined up to deliver subnotebooks based on it this year, many agree that traditional notebook PCs are heading toward the endangered species list.

%dquotJupiter devices will cannibalize notebooks,%dquot said Rob Enderle, a senior analyst at the market research firm Giga Information Group. %dquotNotebooks are mostly used for e-mail and light document creation. Jupiter devices can come in at a lower price point, are less power-hungry, and are capable of the things that notebooks are used for.%dquot

Jupiter-based machines will differ in two critical ways from Win CE 2.0-based machines: The new specification will allow for 640-by-480-pixel screens, giving the look and feel of a Windows 95 device, and they will include Universal Serial Bus ports, said one computer maker that is planning a device.

The systems will weigh about two pounds and cost less than $1000. Most will feature 16MB of RAM and 16MB of ROM and will have no moving parts.

The Jupiter machines are likely to be based on RISC processors, sources said. In the meantime, Intel this week will announce a low-power 166-MHz Pentium for use in mininotebooks, which will compete with the Jupiter-based systems using RISC processors.

By the time Win CE 3.0 subnotebooks are introduced, prices for Pentium-based mininotebooks that run Windows 95, such as Toshiba%squots Libretto and Mitsubishi%squots Amity, are expected to drop dramatically.

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