For Pen’s Sake, Where is the Market?

Consumer electronics vs. corporate computing

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas last month, the Wall Street Journal summed up the main news as “Small, Portable, and Digital” (Jan. 8, 1993) — three words that aptly describe pen-based computers. So it was fitting that in the midst of all the new portable gadgetry on display at CES, Apple Computer again showed off a working model of its Newton hand-held computer, while Tandy and Casio showed a prototype of their handheld system code-named Zoomer.

Apple didn’t reveal anything that we didn’t know already. The main point was to demonstrate that the company is making progress in bringing the Newton to market. Apple’s working model and a similar version shown by Sharp Electronics (which is a partner of Apple’s in the Newton project) demonstrated essentially the same features that Apple has been demonstrating on a Macintosh with an ARM processor based expansion board for the past six months. Apple had previously shown working models to the press and at several professional conferences, but the CES demo was the first major public demonstration of the machine. Apple demonstrated wireless fax transmission, handwriting and geometric shape recognition, and the pen command interface. The Newton is still scheduled for delivery to retailers by this summer at a price of under $1000.

The Tandy/Casio Zoomer

The Tandy/Casio demo was more newsworthy since it was the first time the joint venture has publicized any of the technical details of the machine. Tandy/Casio showed a prototype of their “Zoomer” Personal Information Processor running GeoWorks’ PenGEOS. The prototype unit weighed less than one pound and was about the size of a VCR cassette. Tandy/Casio refused to disclose the type of processor in the prototype, but it is likely to be Intel compatible since it runs PenGEOS, which is an Intel-based operating system.

The machine has a PCMCIA slot and a digital/analog converter for sound processing, as well as serial and parallel ports and an infrared port. Zoomer runs on 3 AA batteries and is designed to run for “several months” on a single set of batteries, according to Tandy spokesman Ed Juge. A lithium backup battery is included to protect from data loss in the event of battery failure or when replacing batteries. Juge told us that wireless communications will not play a major role in the first version of Zoomer. “The target market can’t afford wireless communications,” said Juge.

The Zoomer is equipped with a plastic stylus as the primary input and interface device, as well a 4-way rocker switch, and A/B buttons for playing games (games will clearly be a major market for the Zoomer). The PenGEOS operating environment will include bundled productivity applications such as a dictionary/thesaurus, a multiple language phrase translator, area code directory, e-mail software, and data and file transfer utilities for exporting and importing data. The infrared port will likely be used for printing and to transfer information not only between Zoomer machines but also to and from other infrared capable devices, such as the HP 95 LX.

The bundled applications and handwriting recognition engine are being supplied by Palm Computing (Menlo Park, CA). Other companies that have an-

Where’s the Market?

nounced support of PenGEOS include Intuit (Menlo Park, CA), which makes the popular Quicken financial management package for Macintosh and Windows, and America On-Line (Vienna, VA). Tandy/Casio intends to promote an open development environment, making the application program interfaces (APIs) available to all interested software developers. Tandy/Casio expects about 25 third party software applications to be available for the machine when it ships.

According to Tandy’s Ed Juge, the Zoomer will be available later this year and will be priced “closer to $500 than to $1000.” Other sources tell us that the machine will be unveiled at summer CES for a price of $600.

Consumer Electronics a Better Match for the Pen?

Aside from the fact that both the Newton and Zoomer are fascinating machines with tremendous market potential, there is something else going on here — namely that consumer electronics retailers are going to comprise an early and potentially large market for pen-based machines.

There would be little disagreement that up to now pen computing has found a tough row to hoe in the mainstream computer marketplace. There are a host of 80386 pen tablets on the market, all that look and feel more or less alike. Even the EO Personal Communicator, which is a major step forward from the likes of the NCR 3125, will face a rough road unless hardware vendors come upon ways to make the hardware lighter in weight and less expensive in price. Without a doubt there’s a potentially big market for clipboard-sized, general-purpose mobile computers. However, the development of this market has been stalled by the inability of manufacturers to break through the price/weight barrier. In the meantime, lower-cost, somewhat more application-specific pen-based systems are coming on fast. Eventually, these devices may resemble special-purpose embedded systems more than the general-purpose PCs we’ve become used to seeing and using. For example, one such device might be a hand-held solid-state digital dictaphone based on digital-signal processing (DSP) technology that only does one thing — but does it well and cheaply. An other such device might be a simple lightweight, inexpensive digital notepad that allows you to take notes and nothing else — no spreadsheets, no databases (well okay, maybe a game or two).

In short, mobile computing will likely depend on the pen as an interface manipulation device as much as it does on wireless communication to keep in touch with the rest of the world. But the immediate question that remains is what form factor (hand-held or clipboard) and what focus (general-purpose or application-specific) will strike gold first and what companies will take those riches to the bank. If Newton and Zoomer can stay on track and enter the market at a price of about $600, these machines will force dramatic design and price changes in the more expensive clipboard market. But working models are often a far cry from a working retail product and both Newton and Zoomer have much to prove before they appear on the shelves of department stores.