News

First "Smart Displays" - Mira - announced; prices surprise

Viewsonic is one of the few portable "Tablet" PC makers which is equally interested in buidling one or more "Smart Display" slates for the home - but this price looks - ambitious!

The Viewsonic announcement was put out by Microsoft this morning - a retail announcement for the distribution of the ViewSonic airpanel in the USA.

The Smart Display is little more than a thin client with a wireless link to an ordinary PC as host. It works more like Laplink or PC Anywhere than like a portable PC; it is, in fact, just a Win CE device with a touch screen and a pen.

Originally, it was described as "aimed at the $300 market" - so the news that Amazon.com, Buy.com, CompUSA, Fry's Electronics and RCS will be selling the airpanel Smart Displays is of less significance than the $999 and $1,299 respectively asked for the V110 and V150 airpanel devices. For that money, you can actually get a full Tablet PC.

"Smart Displays extend the power of Windows XP," is Microsoft's blurb on this. The 10-inch airpanelT V110 and 15-inch V150 are touch-screen LCD monitors with integrated 802.11b wireless support that allow consumers to use their Windows XP Professional-based PC desktop remotely from any room in the home at any time.

"Smart Displays liberate consumers from their home office, providing them with anytime, anywhere access to their Windows XP-based PC," said Keith White, senior director of marketing for the Embedded and Appliance Platforms Group at Microsoft. "Microsoft is excited to be working with ViewSonic and these broad-reaching retailers to bring consumers Smart Displays, empowering them with convenient access to the information, applications and services they use most."

They'll start shipping sometime in the first quarter of 2003.