Consumer demand for portable PCs that can turn on as a fast as a phone is likely to be satisfied by the netbook and smartbook categories in 2010 , but Dell is looking out for small and medium businesses who still prefer notebooks.
Its latest Latitude models targetting this market – the E4200 and E4300 – haveLatitude ON technology, which was first introduced in September on the higher end Latitude Z aimed at the enterprise.
ON comes in three flavours. There is a basic software option where users press an alternative power-on button and the notebook boots a Linux-based operating system provided by DeviceVM.
For a new option costing $50 more on these latest Latitudes, there is a faster boot from installed Flash memory or, for $200 more, an add-on ARM-based processor is provided that gives much longer battery life than the Intel one already installed.
I tried a unit that included Flash and booted into the Dell-branded DeviceVM operating system in about seven seconds.
There is an appealing mix of software in this first business offering from DeviceVM, better known for its Splashtop consumer offering. Apart from a Mozilla Web browser, there are email and chat programs, a photo viewer, music player and the security of Citrix-based virtual private networking, which can be important to business users. There was no delay to getting on the internet either with rapid connectivity to local Wi-Fi hotspots.
“With Flash it gives you that ability to take a standard notebook and allow this hybrid usage model of a traditional fat client notebook, with the Flash allowing you to use it like a thin client notebook as well,” explained Robert Thompson, Dell product manager .
“And that’s without the end-user drawbacks of the thin client, such as no local storage and where your internet connectivity can disappear and render the device a paperweight.”
