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Fujitsu's slate gets a convertible Tablet sibling

The Tablet market may not have taken off yet, but it's already caused a big boost to the standard notebook business - price cutting by traditional notebook makers has been the response to the "new threat" - is this why Fujitsu Siemens has announced a "convertible" version of its Tablet?

The launch is US only at the moment, with the release of a Lifebook T3000 model Tablet.

Unlike the Stylistic, this one is a convertible - twist the screen and fold it over, and you have a "slate format" notebook, and twist again, to make it a keyboard-laptop.

The probable beneficiary of this announcement, if anybody benefits, will be the notebook, again. Until Tablets are a lot cheaper, most people will pick the notebook option. And in the last few months, Tablet sales in Europe at least, have dropped by a third from their peak, while notebook sales have boomed - rising by nearly 50% - as Wireless Newsfactor reported last month.

The new Lifebook starts at a price of starts at $1,799 for a base configuration, but you can buy extra options.

The interesting thing about this is that, contrary to expectations, it isn't just a test market. The Stylistic range, pure "slate" format, was definitely launched as market research; it was not Intel Centrino based.

When asked about that, Fujitsu Siemens executives explained that it was very important for evaluation purposes: corporate buyers would want to have a machine which had the same "disk image" as their existing notebooks.

The logic of this was never quite clear, since the Tablet uses a different operating system, thus ruling out a common disk image; Tablet Edition Windows XP is not the same as Windows XP at all.

The obligatory "analyst quote" dredged up for the press release quote Alan Promisel at IDC: "Having offered pen-enabled PCs for more than 10 years, Fujitsu brings a depth of experience to addressing its customers' needs," he said. "Touch screen notebooks and Tablet PCs have become viable tools for companies seeking to improve the productivity of mobile workers. With the addition of the convertible LifeBook T3000 Tablet PC, Fujitsu has enhanced its suite of pen-enabled portables, providing its customers with a greater number of computing options."

If that actually means anything other than "they paid me to put a positive spin on adding a new product to their line" the real meaning is probably: "Why on earth did they launch a Centrino now, rather than waiting for the new version of Intel wireless, which is 802.11g compatible?"

The nicest feature, all others taken for granted, is the "bridge battery" which means you can travel with two batteries, and switch from the dead one to the fully-charged one - without switching off first.

"The LifeBook T3000 Tablet PC's bridge battery can last up to five minutes while users replace a spent main battery for a fresh one," says the launch announcement. Full spec is listed:

Processor: Intel Pentium M processor 1.4 GHz

Display: 12.1" XGA display with active digitiser

Memory: 256 MB minimum; two DIMM slots; 2 GB maximum

Hard Drive(1): 60 GB or 40 GB

Communications: Ethernet, modem and Intel PRO/Wireless Network Connection 802.11b

PC Card Slots: Two Type II or one Type III PC card slots

Battery: Lithium ion; up to 4.5 hours(2) with high-capacity main battery; bridge battery for warm swapping of primary battery

Ports: Two USB 2.0, Modem (RJ-11), Ethernet (RJ-45), VGA-out, Infrared port (IrDA 1.1-compatible, 4Mbps), headphone, microphone and docking port

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Dimensions/Weight: 11.5" (W) x 9.3" (D) x 1.1-1.4" (H); approximately 4.18 lbs.

Users looking for 802.11b/g wireless capabilities or a non-wireless option can choose the LifeBook T3000D Tablet PC. This model incorporates the Intel Pentium M Processor 1.4 GHz and Intel 855GM chipset, but can be purchased with or without 802.11b/g wireless LAN.

More details from the European web site ...