IBM Joins the Pen Race and more…

We continue our series of pen computing flashbacks as Pen-Based Computing prepares to celebrate its fifth anniversary in January. This article, taken from the May 1992 issue, describes several new products, including a new pen tablet from IBM, the world’s first “wearable” computer, and a new pen-enabled operating system.

IBM Joins the Pen Race

After months of showing a prototype pen-based tablet system, IBM tacked a moniker to the device and, at GO’s PenPoint 1.0 press event, made public its intentions. The 6-pound IBM ThinkPad measures about 1.5 x 9.5 x 12 inches and is built around a 20 MHz 386SX CPU. It comes with either 4 or 8 Mbytes of RAM. Instead of a hard disk for mass storage, the ThinkPad uses two 10 Mbyte solid state storage cards from SunDisk. The display is a transflective, backlit LCD with VGA resolution. To save power, however, you can turn off backlighting.

For power, the ThinkPad has an AC/DC adapter, and a rechargeable NiCd battery package with a three-hour charge life. The unit also sports an integrated 2400 data, 9600 fax modem, a connector for an external 1.44/2.88 Mbyte disk drive, external keyboard port, untethered pen, and a “ruggedized” magnesium case which IBM claims can withstand a drop of 6 feet. Although the ThinkPad will ship with PenPoint, it will use an IBM-developed handwriting recognition engine.

Our first impression is that the ThinkPad is an attractive machine with some good features, although it is quite heavy for a mobile pen system. We particularly like the lightly etched display which, when you are writing on it, more closely resembles the feel of pen on paper than do other pen systems; the ability to turn off backlighting to conserve power is useful; and the solid-state storage instead of the conventional movable hard disk is a plus. Those naysayers who like to brow-beat IBM will be disappointed in the ThinkPad — the company is off on the right foot.

While there’s little surprise in the hardware configuration announced by IBM, the company’s initial marketing strategy did raise some eyebrows. IBM said the ThinkPad would be initially sold on a special-bid basis only to corporate customers and independent software developers. Pricing was not disclosed although rumor has it at about $4500. Although availability is expected in the fourth quarter of this year, Barry Vieth, IBM’s vice president of Tablet Systems, said “special bid” versions of the systems will be available this summer.

IBM also announced the IBM Pen Developer Assistance Program which is designed to help corporate customers and ISVs develop applications software. Speculation continues to abound that the ThinkPad will not be the only system in the IBM pen stable. Rumor has it that the company is working on a handheld device that will sell for under $1000 that may be out before the end of the year.

GRiD’s PalmPad and Geoworks’ Pen/GEOS bode well for the low end marketplace

While most of the attention is currently focused on the PenPoint and Windows for Pen, the lower end of the pen market has also contributed some interesting products in the past few months.

The GRiD PalmPad

GRiD Systems has introduced a substantially smaller version of its GRiDPad 8086/NEC V20-based system called the PalmPad. GRiD calls the PalmPad “The First Wearable Pen Computer.” The 2.8 pound machine comes with a wrist band for strapping the machine to your arm. The battery pack is detachable and can be worn on your belt, bringing the weight of the main unit down to 2.2 pounds. GRiD plans to offer other belt-mounted peripherals such as bar code readers, extra battery packs, printers, and so forth. The hand grips of the unit are designed to accommodate a fax modem or spread spectrum radio.

The PalmPAD is the first machine on the market to use Logitech’s Gazelle Graphics digitizer, which is packaged with a 6.5 inch diagonal backlit 640 x 400 pixel LCD, and also the first machine to support SunDisk 20 Mbyte flash memory cards. The housing of the PalmPAD is a sturdy co-molded plastic and rubber case.

The PalmPAD starts at $2895 with 2 MBytes of RAM and a slot for a PCMCIA card or SunDisk storage card (the cards themselves are extra). The machine is still pretty expensive for a V.20-based system, but its lightweight and rugged design will make it a strong contender in the mobile market. The PalmPAD will ship next month and we plan to provide an in depth review in a future issue.

Geoworks Intros Pen/GEOS

One of the more interesting recent announcements came from Geoworks at the Technologic Partners’ pen conference in February. The company will introduce later this year a pen-based version of its popular PC/GEOS graphical operating environment (Geoworks claims to have sold 400,000 copies of PC/GEOS in the past year).

Called Pen/GEOS, the graphical interface is targeted at low-priced Intel-based palmtop systems, in particular 8088 and 8086 based systems. Geoworks demonstrated a prototype version of Pen/GEOS on a PoqetPad pen computer (see our February, 1992 issue for more on the PoqetPad).

The demonstration showed the GEOS user interface being operated by a pen and included a handwriting recognition application from a new startup company headed by former GRiD VP of research, Jeff Hawkins, called Palm Computing. Hawkins said his company plans to introduce handwriting recognition software as well as other applications for Pen/GEOS.

Geoworks plans to release an OEM version of Pen/GEOS in the fourth quarter of 1992. Initial hardware platforms will include the PoqetPad and the GRiDPad.