Compaq Computer Corp. plans to ship its long-awaited sub-$500, Universal Serial Bus-based PC at the end of January, running both Windows 2000 and PC management software that is designed to make deployment cheaper and easier.
The $499 iPAQ desktop computers will include new automatic PC management software agent from Altiris Inc. in Lindon, Utah.
Houston-based Compaq officials told Computerworld that the management software from the Altiris partnership will cut $124 off the average $226 it costs businesses to set up and deploy each PC because it helps automate the process.
The Altiris deal will be announced officially Jan. 24. The software agent will be included in iPAQ machines, which will run Windows 2000, even though the new operating system won't officially be introduced until Feb. 17, said Compaq vice president of services Ray Frigo.
The combination of the management software with the iPAQ "could be a great concept" in terms of keeping total costs of ownership down, especially in large companies where PC rollouts number in the thousands, said analyst Rob Enderle of Giga Information Group Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.
iPAQ is built upon a more stable architecture that is easier to maintain, especially with automatic software distribution capabilities, Enderle said. "If one crashes, you could have all your files and applications on a server, and just replace the machine and flash out a new software imprint," he said. "It's drop-dead simple."
iPAQ, announced in November, has a different shape and a sleek, black-and-silver color scheme, but is mostly important for its "legacy-free" components. That means it comes without a serial or parallel port or a Peripheral Component Interconnect expansion bus, using three Universal Serial Bus slots on the rear instead. (iPAQ will also ship in a separate version that has legacy ports, however.)
But iPAQ will have all the speed and features deemed most important to corporate users, Compaq officials said. Since the product was introduced in November, thousands have been ordered directly over the Internet, said Jerry Meerkatz, vice president of the Internet Access division. iPAQ only will be sold direct and not in retail stores.
The $499 iPAQ will include a 500-MHz Celeron processor, 64MB of memory and a 4.3-GB hard drive. There is only one external bay, which can accept DVD, CD or floppy disks, or a second hard drive. For $799, users can upgrade to a 500-MHz Pentium III processor.
The management features in the Altiris software are designed to allow a large IT shop to deploy hundreds or thousands of desktops with minimal visits by a technician to each desktop. Such network products are available from some vendors such as Tivoli Corp. or Computer Associates International Inc., but Compaq officials said the Altiris products will cost only thousands compared to tens of thousands of dollars for higher-end products. The products will retail for about $30 per user.
The software is designed to allow an IT manager to download a software image with all a PC's files and applications, install an operating system on a new machine remotely or upgrade or fix a machine remotely.
The three products from the partnership are called Altiris eXpress 4.1, PC Transplant for Compaq and PcTransplant Pro. Compaq officials demonstrated an installation over a 10Mbit/sec. LAN of a 2-GB desktop image on a new machine in 10 minutes.
The products will be free for 30 days on the new iPAQs and will be available for Compaq laptops in March and its workstations in June, said Ed Reynolds, director of PC Lifecycle Solutions.
Other large PC makers are planning legacy-free machines, including Dell Computer Corp., with the Webpc for consumers at first, IBM with the Edge of Network concept and Hewlett-Packard Co. with the e-PC concept.
James Fecteau, director of IT for Eagle River Associates in Kirkland, Wash., said his company recently installed new Toshiba Corp. desktops and wouldn't want to convert to iPAQ or other legacy-free machines right away despite the features.
"I would like a legacy-free machine, but the industry still isn't fully supporting it," he said. For example, the 3Com Corp. Palm Pilot handhelds and digital cameras his company uses still don't use the new USB connectors, and buying an adapter is $80 per desktop. "That's too much," he said.
For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld online. Story copyright © 2000 Computerworld, Inc. All rights reserved.
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