By Nikki Baird, Managing Partner
10/23/2007
Last week Paula and I were at Fujitsu’s first single-company analyst event. In the past the events have been run separately by separate divisions, but a new strategy emphasizing synergies between divisions as one key avenue for future growth had everyone together in the same room at the same time. This was definitely eye-opening for me – I know Fujitsu as point of sale, so it was enlightening to hear about the scope and breadth of their offerings in everything from computing to data centers to consulting.
The company has launched new versions of ultra-mobile PC’s (UMPCs) at highly attractive price points, and with plans already in the works to incorporate solid state drives (which reduce the number of points of failure in the device and reduce power consumption and heat) along with built-in wireless WAN (WWAN) capabilities.
The presentation was more geared towards analysts who cover the consumer PC market, but retail and CPG companies have both taken interest in the UMPC’s in particular because of the opportunities they offer in the field – field sales force for CPG and store employees for retail. In fact, at NRF last January Circuit City demoed a guided selling application on a pen-enabled ultra-mobile that just happened to be made by Fujitsu. For applications like this, a true PC – not a mobile device with a mobile OS – that has wireless capabilities and a touch screen of one sort or another seems like the perfect fit. I know retailers have tried it unsuccessfully in the past, but the technology is getting lighter, cooler, and ever more reliable. It has the potential to combine the best of a rich interface with something that is possible to carry around.
But what intrigued me more was the discussion about when WWAN would come down enough in price point to be a consumer-worthy offering that will reach a tipping point in consumer adoption. The discussion in the room centered around early to mid-2008. This has huge implications. I was a late adopter of WWAN – I bought my card this summer, only to learn that if I wanted to upgrade my laptop, I was basically going to have to throw the card away because a lot of manufacturers already offer integrated WWAN capabilities in their PC’s. I have to say, once you use it, you can never go back. The convenience of near always-on internet access is huge. It is no exaggeration to say that it changed the way I look at the world – no longer am I looking for a hotspot, or debating about whether it’s worth it to pay the $10 to access the hotspot to check email. If I want the internet, it’s a couple of clicks away.
If you thought that mobile phones in the hands of consumers had the potential to be disruptive to retail (Google product search at the shelf anyone?), then you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I wrote about the iPhone and the shopping experience – it has already slain anything you can get out of the smartest smart phone from a user perspective. Now imagine doing the same exact thing on something the size of a paperback novel – full browser, full email, full documents. Who needs a Blackberry? A phone can just be a phone (or you can get a Bluetooth earpiece and brave Skype on your new UMPC), and you can get a full web experience in the palm of your hand – anywhere you go, thanks to WWAN.
Granted, adoption is going to take awhile. But if you’re building a mobile strategy today, then you need to make sure that you’re taking a look at the world of UMPC’s and truly ubiquitous computing. It’s not as far off as you think. The only thing I still find myself relentlessly searching for today? An outlet to charge the darn thing.
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