Redefining Rugged In NotebooksRedefining Rugged In Notebooks

Worldwide notebook PC sales have finally exceeded desktop PC sales with more than 100 million units sold this year. Taking your notebook with you when you travel allows all of your computing resources to go with you from home to work, to use while waiting on a flight at the airport as well as on a flight and in a hotel room. You use Wi-Fi at home, the office, and at a hotspot, and then wide area wireless (EV-DO or HSDPA) everywhere else. You get to the point that you just assume that your notebook computer is always available.Then, one day you accidentally drop it up off a table while checking e-mail at Starbucks and you watch it take a slow-motion tumble to the floor. Fifty gigabytes of hard drive images flash through your mind as your system crashes on the floor. Your heart races and you begin to pray that just this once the system will successfully boot up after such an unfortunate incident. If it does boot up, your blood pressure quickly returns to normal. But, if it just sits there and won't start, a feeling of nausea sweeps over you as you realize that your system may be totally damaged and it's going to be a major effort to get productive again -- even if you did a recent back up of the hard drive.

Or, even if someone accidentally spills coffee on your notebook's keyboard, you react like you're stung by instantly picking it up, turning it over, pouring clear water over the keyboard, wiping the keyboard, and then hoping that it hasn't totally damaged the system.

Most notebook manufacturers have focused on cost reduction over the past 10 years and, as a result, notebook PCs today are very cost effective, with many very powerful systems available for less than $1,000. But, on the way to cost cutting, extra cost items such as added rugged features were left out.

Now there's a trend to add more rugged features to commercial traditional notebooks since they're becoming a more valuable personal and enterprise asset. The areas in which most vendors are adding more rugged features include:

Spill-resistant keyboard -- technology incorporated to prevent liquids from leaking into the electronics inside the case. Users are told to actually wash off the keyboard with water when soda or coffee is spilled on the keyboard. Shock mounting of the hard drive -- adding special shock-resistant mounts to the hard disk drive (HDD) that helps the disk avoid crashing when suddenly hit. Note that the HDD itself may also have anti-shock technology such as auto parking of the drive heads when a sudden acceleration is sensed. Magnesium case -- used instead of plastic so that the case won't break when dropped from a low height, for example, off a table. Shock mounting of display -- where special shock mounts are added to the display so that when the notebook is dropped from a small height like 30" (one meter), the display is protected and won't usually break. Environmental protection -- where dust, humidity, and vibration management are added where usage patterns require (full rugged systems). Because notebook vendors are adding more rugged features into their notebook systems, the large mainstream segment of the market is seeing more rugged features without a significant increase in the cost. Take Panasonic as an example of the trend to more rugged traditional notebook systems. It just released its new 7-series Toughbooks (Y7-14-inch thin and light, W7-12.1-inch Ultraportable and T7-pen-enabled tablet) that are all traditional looking notebooks, even though they incorporate many rugged features. The 7-series are mil-spec rated to 12-inch height drop survival for the unit itself and 30-inch height survival for the shock-mounted hard drive and include spill-resistant keyboard design of more than 6 ounces (200 cc). The lid and base of the notebooks are designed to withstand more than 220 pounds (100 Kg) of pressure. Finally, all Toughbook hinges are required to pass 50,000 cycles and keyboards are tested to withstand 25 million keystrokes. Panasonic and a number of leading vendors also are migrating to embedded wide area wireless so that EV-DO (CDMA) or HSDPA (GSM) is available internally right next to Wi-Fi (b/g). This eliminates using a PC Card, which usually sticks out the side of the notebook and is prone to damage. Embedded solutions also provide superior signal strength and, hence, better connectivity. With not much cost necessary to provide increased rugged features, you're going to see all major notebook vendors switch from talking about low cost to talking more about ruggedness and reliability. Someday, all notebooks will be rugged and we'll wonder how we put up with nonrugged systems for so long. Gerry Purdy is VP and chief analyst of mobile and wireless communications for Frost & Sullivan. He is a guest blogger with Over The Air.