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A Look Ahead at Notebooks

Smaller %dquotJupiter class%dquot Windows CE-based devices to wipe out heavier handheld PCs.

By Randy Ross, PCWorld   

Windows CE %dquotJupiter class%dquot $1000 products will be designed for traveling executives who need a portable device mainly for reading and responding to e-mail. The main benefit of the products: They will offer up to ten times the battery life of other small notebooks, according to Peter G. Gaucher, an executive in IBM%squots ThinkPad division.

However, vendors will also offer full-blown notebook PCs in the same price range. Within a year we are likely to see notebooks capable of running Windows 98 and sporting a mobile 266-MHz Celeron P-II, a 3GB or 4GB hard drive, and a 12-inch passive matrix screen, according to Greg Munster, a notebook product marketing manger for Hewlett-Packard. Munster also said that vendors will likely be offering notebooks in this price range aimed at the consumer market.

The Jupiter-class devices may not stack up well against full-blown notebooks, but they may put an end to the one-pound handheld PCs that currently run the Windows CE operating system, Gaucher said. The handheld devices are too big to fit in your pocket, as Palm Pilot products from IBM and 3Com do, and are too small to type on as you can with a Jupiter device, he said.

Notebook screens will not change a lot over the next 12 months. Expect to see some notebooks with 15-inch screens, but don%squott expect pricing for mainstream PC buyers, Gaucher said. And screens larger than 15 inches won%squott appear during this period, he said. In addition, prices for passive and active matrix screens will start to converge. Currently, notebooks with active matrix screens cost about $300 to $500 more than their passive matrix counterparts. Gaucher said the price difference could shrink to about $100 to $200.

According to HP%squots Munster, by next spring notebook performance may catch up with today%squots desktop PCs with 400-MHz CPUs and 100-MHz buses.