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A new company is launching its first product, based on a type of computer that's even newer: the ultramobile PC.
Black Diamond Advanced Technology, based in Tempe, Ariz., this week unveiled the SwitchBack UMPC, a 3-pound, 2-inch-thick rugged computer about the size of paperback book. The handheld got a showing at Intel's booth at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston.
The overall format is similar to the Microsoft-Intel Origami platform announced earlier this year. The first SwitchBack model will run Windows XP Professional. But future models will let users choose from several operating systems, load two of them and switch between them for different applications and to maximize battery life.
The name "SwitchBack" refers to a replaceable and customizable module that screws into the back of the computer. This plate can be designed to hold various wired and wireless interfaces, including GPS receiver and terrestrial radio, and peripherals ranging from bar code readers to Breathalyzers.
The company that birthed this device started in July 2005, backed by a group of angel investors. The co-founders have backgrounds in defense weapons and communications systems with a need for electronics that could survive extreme environments.
Targeted at industrial, outdoor and public safety applications, the computer has been designed from the inside out to meet the demanding requirements of these users, according to Justin Dyster, Black Diamond's president.
"The UMPC is a smaller version of the [Microsoft] TabletPC," he says. "But the tablet's weakness was it lacked flexibility in ports and interfaces. We wanted to build a basic model that could be customized with a range of ports and interfaces, based on the customer's specific requirements."
Black Diamond's rugged handheld is a big step forward for the UMPC, says IDC's personal computing lead analyst, David Daoud. "At the launch of Origami, the idea [of the UMPC] was a newborn concept, with its creators essentially looking at it as a consumer product," he says. "Things have evolved since then and several emerging players are looking beyond the consumer market and into industry applications."
"The rugged UMPC has great potential for success in niche vertical markets," Daoud says.
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