Pen Computing 27 - April 1999 -- When Fujitsu Personal Systems introduced the Point 510 almost two years ago, the
company not only resurrected the "Point" product name that had graced a number of
prior Fujitsu pen products (most notably the handsome 325 Point), but also, for
the first time, introduced a computer that was specifically developed for a
vertical marketÑhealthcare.
We reviewed the Point 510 in detail in our August
1997 issue and concluded: "Our overall impression of the new Fujitsu Point 510 is
very good. Though Fujitsu freely admits that price considerations drove the
design of this unit, the company succeeded admirably in its effort to arrive at
an optimal balance between a reasonable price and good performance." We felt that
perhaps the biggest challenge the Point 510 brought to the company's lineup was
for its salespeople to describe why the handsome Point 510 with its large color
screen was actually less expensive than the then new Stylistic 1200.
It's 1999
now and Fujitsu has launched a new and improved version of the Point 510, the
Point 1600. Like the new Stylistic 2300, the Point 1600 has been redesigned "from
the outside in." The new Point looks almost exactly like the old one, but inside
it's all new.
But before we go into detail, we should perhaps take a look at the
target market of Fujitsu's Point, i.e. the healthcare sector. Healthcare settings
are an almost perfect market for pen tablet computers. Healthcare personnel is
constantly on the go, visiting patients, stopping by labs, looking up date. Data
needs to be entered and recalled every few minutes, and proper use of mobile
technology can have an enormous payback. As a result, several pen computing
vendors have taken an interest in the health care market over the years.
At the
time of the Point 510's inception, Cruise Technologies had established a
promising foothold with its wireless CruisePad and Wise Medical had developed an
entire hardware/software solution all on its own. Today, both of those companies
are gone, becoming casualties of debilitating growing pains before they could
reap the benefits of their pioneering work.
Fujitsu Personal Systems, on the
other hand, is strong enough to make it through the often lengthy Pilot programs
required before customers will buy large quantities. Last year, a total of about
12,000 Point 510s were deployed in various medical settings and another 2,800
went to Nabisco, proofing that the Point's market appeal goes beyond the
healthcare sector.
So how does the Point 1600 compare to the Point 510? Overall,
Fujitsu hasnÕt strategy with the Point line hasn't changed. The device is still
primarily focused on the healthcare market and it's still engineered with cost in
mind, since cost is a big issue in the forever cash-strapped healthcare sector.
Like the 510, the 1600 is sort of a compromise between low-enough cost and
good-enough performance. In the fast-paced world of electronic components, last
year's componentry is practically given away whereas the latest, greatest
products demand a premium price. Examples are new Intel chips that initially cost
as much as an entire entry level computer system. When faced with the task of
putting together a low-cost system that can do the job, engineers must carefully
pick and choose the various components. Be too conservative and customers will
balk, or components may become unavailable. Be too aggressive and the anticipated
cost savings evaporate.
What FPSI ended up doing was boost the Point's specs and
performance so that performance-wise it occupies the same relative position in
1999 as the Point 510 did in 1997. Which is not a bad place to be. Specifically,
the old 100MHz 5x86 processor that provided Pentium 75 level performance had been
replaced with a respectably quick Pentium 166 MMX with 512KB of Level 2 cache.
Standard RAM quadrupled from the marginal 8MB to an adequate 32MB (expandable to
96MB through a single connector accessible from the outside of the unit). Disk
space more than doubled from 1.6GB in the 510 to a much faster 4.1GB unit in the
1600. The 32-bit Cirrus video controller gave way to a 128-bit NeoMagic
subsystem, and connectivity was enhanced by adding a USD port, a floppy disk
port, simultaneous video, and using the faster IrDA 1.1 standard (also known as
FIR, operating at maximum speeds of 4Mbps).
What hasnÕt changed is the screen
where Fujitsu stayed with the Point 510's 10.4-inch SVGA DSTN LCD, capable of
displaying up to 65,536 colors. Given that TFTs have come down in price as well
as power consumption, this is perhaps one area where we wish FPSI had thrown
caution in the wind and opted for an active matrix display.
Expandability remains
relatively unchanged. I say relatively because while the 1600 still only has one
user-accessible PC Type II/III card slot and an embedded Type II slot, which is
really a dedicated Òradio bay.Ó Also, customers can now order the Point 1600 with
an integrated 56k v.90 modem, accessible through an RJ-11 jack.
Finally, while
radio options used to be pretty much limited to ProximÕs RangeLAN2 wireless LAN
card, FPSI also plans to offer the faster BreezeCom radio.
Nonetheless, the
bottom line is that customers interested in the Point now get a unit that's
anywhere between two and four times more powerful than the one it replaces, all
for the exact same price.
No discussion of Fujitsu's Point line of computers
would be complete without mentioning the wide range of cradles and port
replicators available for the unit. This wealth of options is partially due to
the fact that the slate itself features "only" the most necessary interface
ports: serial, keyboard, audio, I/R, USB, and AC/DC, and partially due to the
fact that customers use the Point in many different ways, requiring many
different ways of docking the unit. So here are the options: Folks who park and
remove their Point many times a day will want the High-Usage deskstand cradle
with its optional locks. It's built to withstand some 100,000 insertions, has an
adjustable viewing angle and weighs 4.4 pounds. The same form factor cradle is
available in a "high-connectivity" version that ads parallel, mouse, floppy
drive, external monitor ports, and an additional serial port to the unit's own
interface connectors. Next on the list is a high-usage wall-mount with a
convenient flip-open keyboard. A high-usage charge-only dock that allows a
depleted battery pack to get back up to 90% capacity within just an hour and a
half. Finally, there is a basic snap-on port replicator that provides the same
port expansion as the high-connectivity cradle. What this means is that FPSI will
likely have a cradle or dock for any working scenario.
In the larger scheme of
things, where does the Point 1600 fit in? Its design and measurements (11.7 x 8.7
x 1.4 inches) essentially classify the Point as a modern implementation of such
pioneering pen tablets as the Toshiba Dynabook, the Samsung PenMaster, and the
original IBM ThinkPad. The Point, of course, is much more powerful than those
early efforts and infinitely more capable of fulfilling the tasks it was designed
for. With its DSTN color screen it is clearly a device for indoor use. The Point
is not a "rugged" computer, but it's robust enough, according to FPSI, to incur
an annual failure rate of under five percent, an incredibly low figure.
Overall,
we consider the Point 1600 a very appealing product. The thorough technical
makeover provided by FPSI has resulted in a much faster device with significantly
increased internal storage. The variety of cradles ensures that a customer can
use the Point in a manner suitable to the task at hand. And though the Fujitsu
Point pen tablet was specifically designed for the healthcare sector, its
usefulness, and appeal, may well extend into several other vertical markets.
