Compaq Unveils Low-cost Net PC & Business Portal Plan 11/10/99
Newsbytes, Wednesday, November 10, 1999 at 13:57
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 1999 NOV 10 (NB) -- By Steven
Bonisteel, Newsbytes. Compaq Computer Corp. [NYSE:CPQ] today
unveiled a slimmed-down desktop PC it will market as an "Internet
device" and sell for a starting price of $499. The company also
announced plans to launch a Web portal its says will aim to make
businesses and their employees more productive.
Compaq describes its new, 10-pound iPaq as "legacy-free" because it
contains none of the internal slots typically found in PCs to mix
and match hardware features. Instead, it connects to all
peripherals using Universal Serial Bus (USB) technology. CD-ROM and
DVD drives, floppy drives, and additional hard drives can be "hot-
swapped" in iPaq's removable-media bays.
Michael Capellas, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of
Houston, Texas-based Compaq, told a press conference today that
the iPaq was designed specifically for companies looking for an
inexpensive, low-maintenance way to get their employees connected
to the Internet.
"We used to think of interoperability as plug-and-play in the
device," Capellas said. "Today we think of it as 'plug and pay'
on the Internet."
Although some PC makers were reported recently to be building
Window-free Internet PCs, Compaq will begin shipping iPaq machines
in January with Windows 2000 pre-installed. More Windows 2000
bundles are expected to be announced by PC makers over the coming
weeks.
Capellas said Compaq's vision of business computing with the
Internet at its core will be reflected in a new Website it will
launch in the first quarter of 2000 for what it calls the business-
to-employee (B2E) market.
Michael Winkler, a Compaq vice-president and general manager of the
company's Commercial Personal Computer Group, said the B2E Web
portal will be designed to support "communities of interest" in the
business world, kicking off with information and services focused on
information technology professionals.
Winkler said the B2E site will later roll out vertically-oriented
services for other business roles, including finance, procurement,
human resources, and sales and marketing.
Partners already aboard for the first stage of the Web project,
Compaq said, include American Express Company [NYSE:AXP], CMGI Inc.
[NASDAQ:CMGI], Intel Corp. [NASDAQ:INTC], Microsoft Corp.
[NASDAQ:MSFT] and Siebel Systems Inc. [NASDAQ:SEBL].
"We'll provide the best content, the best information, the best
services and the best tools to help business professionals do their
jobs," Winkler said.
He said that, while there are many Websites dishing out consumer
information, "there is not a single source for the aggregation of
information and services for specific job functions within a
corporation."
When the B2E portal launches with support for information technology
(IT) workers, Winkler said, users will be able to keep up-to-date on
new hardware and software releases from multiple vendors, dig up
software drivers and patches and buy products online - all from a
single destination. In addition, they will find industry news,
background information on best-practices and benchmarks, along with
online forums and seminars.
And, Winkler said, "Because the boundaries between personal and
professional lives are blurring, we will also populate the site
with information of personal interest, (including) travel, stocks
and sports."
CEO Capellas said the iPaq PC is "only the beginning" of Compaq's
drive to deliver more of the "devices" required for Internet-based
commercial computing.
The company said that new products to be available next year will
include hand-held devices for wireless Net connectivity and
machines it described as being "like very light laptops" to
support wireless access to full desktop applications.
"We see the transformation moving very quickly from the personal
computer to an Internet device," Capellas said.
"There's growing need for simpler, task-specific devices," he said,
adding that, in addition, people have an increasing need for
seamless access to the same information from both home and at work.
He said interoperability of the devices via the Internet is the
solution to the problem of information access "any time, anywhere." |
