Workers without an office, who cares?

Workers without an office, who cares?

By Onno W. Purbo

JAKARTA (JP): As civilization advances toward a knowledge-
based society, old limitations and paradigms in space, time and
bureaucracy could be diminished.

Mobility and professionalism seem to be key characteristics of
modern professionals. Thus, access to convergence tools in
information, computing and telecommunications, such as, mobile
computing, notebooks, personal digital assistance (PDA) and
cellular phones, will be critical for mobile workers.

A notebook is definitely needed by frequent travelers.

There are four classes of notebooks: all-in-one, general use,
ultra portable/light and mininote.

PDA, Palmtops and others are in the class less then mininote.
In some cases, it would be difficult to categorize one machine in
one of these classes.

In most cases, mobile workers need a notebook, a PDA/Palmtop
and a cellular phone to be truly mobile.

In general, most notebooks are in the general-use class, with
some leaning toward the ultra portable/light class. Depending on
its available options and, consequently, price, certain types of
notebooks may be focused at low-end, mid and high-end markets.
New entry low-end notebooks, mostly in general or all-in-one
classes, may be obtained for about US$1,000 to $1,400. There are
not many known all-in-one class notebooks, one example is the
Toshiba Satellite 1800 series.

The new mid-end general-use class normally comes with 64Mb
RAM, 10Gb disk, 24x CD-ROM and a two- to three- hour battery
life. It cost about $1,200 to $1,900. Those who wish to find low-
cost notebooks may look to Taiwan-made general-use notebooks,
such as, Twinhead efio 3200. It costs about $1,200 for PIII
866MHz, 64MB RAM, 10GB disk or $1,400 for PIII 1GHz, 128MB RAM,
20GB disk. For branded notebooks, Toshiba 1800 and 2800 seems to
be the low-end and economical choice in the general-use class.

Ultra-portable class has a minimum screen size of 11" to 12",
the CPU type used is normally one level lower than the general-
use class, light-weight is the ultimate objective in the ultra-
portable class. Sony seems to concentrate in multimedia-ready
ultra-portable class.

Only a few mininote class have been produced, including,
Toshiba Libertto (10.3" screen) and SONY C1 Picturebook (8.9" TFT
screen and built-in MotionEye camera). They rely on a simpler CPU
generation or special type CPU such as Transmetta, as used in
Libertto. As expected, the mininote class is a small and light-
weight (about 1 kg) notebook with no cooling mechanism as used in
larger notebooks.

More advance high-end notebooks, which are more expensive,
would lean toward the ultra-portable/light class with all the
luxuries.

High-end notebooks may cost more than $2,000 and are more
likely be in the $2,500 range. High-end users may be spoiled by
all the goodies, such as, wide 15" TFT active screen 1024-by-768
pixel resolution, processor Intel Pentium III 900MHz and up, 30+
GB disk, up to 1 GB RAM, 8x DVD-ROM / 24x CD-ROM / CD-RW, five to
eight hours battery life, integrated 802.11b WLAN, infrared, etc.

Module bay is normally used for warm-swappable peripherals. A
high-end notebook is actually a server in a notebook. New
advanced notebooks, such as HP Omnibook 6100, IBM T23 and Dell
Inspiron 8100, based on a higher speed 1.13GHz Intel Pentium III
processor (based on Tualatin 0.13 micron technology), code name
Pentium III-M should be already available in the market now.

Powered by a non-Intel processor, i.e., PowerPC G4; Apple
Computer creates the Apple iBook and PowerBook in the notebook
arena. It may run Microsoft tools and Linux as you wish,
although, it comes with MacOS. The PowerPC G4 processor capable
of executing over one gigaflop, Apple may be the best choice in
graphical and multimedia capability with Sony acting as its most
hostile challenger.

Based on a notebook top-product survey conducted at
www.shopping.yahoo.com, the five top notebooks are Sony VAIO PCG
F690, Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600, Toshiba Satellite 1735, Sony
VAIO Z505LS and Apple iBook.

Sony seems to work hard on catching up with Toshiba. Toshiba
is not easy to catch, with more than 20 million notebook sold
since 1985. According to an IDC 2000 report, Toshiba held a 14.2
percent market share worldwide, followed by Compaq 12 percent.
Toshiba reaffirmed its world number one position again in 2000
for both worldwide and ASEAN/India.

To be honest, it would be a difficult task to choose the best
model among these fine machines. The trick is to find one with
the best after-sales service with piles of stock in
parts/components in long period, more than five years.

A practical way to investigate is by asking the average repair
time and the availability of old parts and components in the
service center. The one with the shortest repair time and plenty
old parts/components would be your best bet. In Indonesia, one
may easily contact these centers at apkomindo@yahoogroups.com
mailing list.

In the general-use class, we will find an abundancy of types.
In the low-end segment, we may find Toshiba Satellite 1800, 2800,
3000 series and Acer Travelmate 520. In middle and high-end
section, we may find Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 series, Toshiba
Tecra 8200 series, IBM T20, Dell Inspiron 8000, Apple iBook,
Compaq Armada E500 and Compaq Armada M700. Including 64Mb RAM,
10Gb disk, RGB video out, USB port, 24x CD-ROM drive and 12" TFT
screen seem to be common for most mid-end general-use class
notebooks. Wireless communications are included in Apple iBook
(Airport) and some models of Satellite Pro 4600 (802.11b), Tecra
8200 (802.11b). Some models, such as, Apple iBook 500MHz PowerPC
G3 and Satellite 3000 come with iLink (IEEE 1394) a.k.a. FireWire
port for transferring handycam movie to your PC with the needed
simple video editing software included. High-end Satellite 2800
and Satellite Pro 4600 models come with 15" TFT screen. Some
models of Satellite 2800, 3000 and Satellite Pro 4600 come with a
CD Writer (CDRW) needed to burn data into CD-ROM. Satellite 3000
series comes with Smart Media Slot, and 3 USB ports.

In the ultra-portable class, we find the Compaq Evo N400C,
Sony R505 SuperSlim Pro, Sony SR series and Toshiba Portege 3490.
a FireWire port, including the necessary software, seems to be
common in all Sony models in an attempt to beat Apple in
multimedia notebooks.

In the high-end general-use class, we will find the Sony FX
series, HP Omnibook 6100, Apple PowerBook, Compaq Presario, IBM
T23 and Dell Inspiron 8100. 15" TFT XGA display, FDD, DVD-ROM,
128-256MB RAM, 20-30GB disk, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, 56K internal
FAX-modem, USB port, PCMCIA slots, A FireWire port seems to be
common for the high-end class.