June/July 2003

Field service staff are targeted squarely by a new ruggedised tablet PC launched by Itronix. Its features include GPRS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and with the company's IcareMobility software it can handle seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and GPRS networks.

The company says that the 8.4in colour display of the GoBook Tablet PC and weight of just 1.7kg make it by far the smallest and lightest example in its class. It is also believed to be the first ruggedised tablet PC to come in at under £2,000. Yet it runs the Tablet version of the full Windows XP operating system, not Windows CE, and the standard specification includes a shock-resistant 30MB hard disk drive.

Itronix is particularly proud of the low size and weight, pointing out that other tablet PCs typically have a 10.5in screen. The GoBook Tablet can be held comfortably with one hand, it says, using a unique rear-mounted hand strap.

The processor in the GoBook Tablet is an 866MHz Intel Mobile PIII, and memory comes in the form of up to 640MB of low-voltage SD RAM. Other features include IP54 dust resistance and MIL-STD 810F shock resistance.

 

The network roaming feature allows users to move seamlessly from a company-run Wi-Fi network to GPRS and back, whilst retaining a single IP (Internet Protocol) address. Itronix says around 80 per cent of its commercial customers nowadays have some kind of in-house hot-spot Wi-Fi network, mostly based on Cisco infrastructure (it sees this as almost an industry standard).

Itronix's origins back in the 1980s were in the world of meter-reading, and it still places more emphasis than most other mobile PC makers on helpline support and application implementation.