Compaq shows off new models

By PETER GRIFFIN

Compaq is revamping its entire range of corporate PCs with a mix of technology and styling that it hopes will stave off competition from rivals such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Last week in Auckland, Compaq's Asia Pacific vice-president for Access Business Group, Paul Blinkhorn, unveiled part of the new "Evo" line-up that will supersede the Armada, Deskpro and Professional Workstation brands in the next 12 months.

Compaq has learned a lot from the popular design of its iPaq pocket PC. The Evo range inherits its carbon and silver finish - a final goodbye to the beige box.

The company showed a range of new notebooks - the N400c, replacing the Armada m300, and the N150, which replaces the m700.

The N400c will offer the new MultiPort technology, a USB (universal service bus) interface that lets the user insert a wireless connection device into the upper side of a laptop's screen. An 802.11b wireless module is released this month, and a Bluetooth version is expected in a couple of months.

Two workstation models, the W6000 and W8000, were also unveiled, as well as a new thin client, the Evo T20. A look at the back of the T20, which will sell for about $1000, shows an absence of legacy serial and parallel ports. USB is the new order.

The Evo range of desktops will not be available until the fourth quarter.

Compaq also showed off its "Dual Worlds" concept device, which doubles as a notebook and desktop in one. The dual device folds out to form a raised platform for the notebook screen, and a metallic keyboard and trackpad can be detached and talk to the notebook wirelessly for office use.

But at 2.4kg and with an expected price of close to $US4000, Dual Worlds is no lightweight. And with little in the way of an expected shipping date or hardware specifications, Compaq's answer to business and mobile computing was hard to get excited about.

Of more interest was a prototype tablet PC offering pen-based operation and a series of wireless prototypes, including a cradle with built-in printer that effectively turns the iPaq into a mobile eftpos terminal and a Bluetooth printer that can receive printing commands from the iPaq.

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Compaq 2001 roadshow