Earlier this year Hugh presented for Intel at CES2011 with his J3500:

Why would you use the J3500 for drawing as a digital artist?

• J3500 allows you to work anywhere! – Indoors, outdoor, on the bus, train or plane –draw wherever creativity strikes you
• Wacom Active Digitizer Pen – There is simply no equivalent PC drawing experience on a mobile device
• Intel Core i7 Processor in an ultra-portable slate – It is the fastest slate Tablet PC on the market.

Interestingly the article demonstrates that much of the push for consumer tablets comes from the simple communication needs of executives and board members. For that, consumer tablets like the iPad can do just fine – security policies permitting.

But for ADT security who wanted to deploy tablets for 80 field technicians, the iPad was never going to cut it. Mark Norton, managing director for ADT in Australia is quoted:

"iPads don’t have the power we need. We’re interfacing with disparate systems."

"Customers sign the tablet and the document is instantly loaded into our enterprise system and emailed to the customer," says Norton.

"Laptops don’t allow customers to sign, tablets do."

ADT deployed the Motion Computing J3500 – a rugged Windows 7 tablet designed specifically for field work. It also has an active digitizer pen interface the allows the technicians to input information in their handwriting and also allows customers to sign on the screen.

Mark Norton’s comments echo our experience with deploying tablets to companies like Rio Tinto, Newcrest Mining, Jemena, SP Ausnet, Goulburn Murray Water, Youi Insurance, Dennis Family Homes and many more. Field users require far more than a consumer tablet can offer.

There are many considerations that businesses take into account including:

• Lack of support for existing applications (deploying remote applications to an iPad is an unworkable compromise)

• No rugged design – Consumer tablets are not designed to be used outdoors, on building or mine sites and in rugged environments. Adding a bulky bump case does not make a consumer tablet rugged.
• Limited input options – Consumer tablets do not support usable handwriting input. Handwriting is much faster than one handed typing on a virtual keyboard.
• Lack of features in available apps – For example the Excel spread sheet readers like Apple’s “Numbers” do not support many formulas or any macros.
• Cost of developing specific company apps for the next big platform  – It’s only a matter of time before Android takes over in the consumer tablet space like it is doing in the phone space. Which platform do you throw tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars at? Or do you just go with small tweaks (if needed) on your existing investment?

Thousands of companies in Australia have already deployed tablets to improve their workflow and eliminate double handling. It is good to see an article in the mainstream media presenting the less sexy side of the tablet world with some balance.

The CL900 will break new ground for work Tablet PCs in Australia. While other manufacturers see Tablet devices as simply viewers, Motion Computing has always pushed the boundaries of real productivity.

The CL900 and other Motion Tablets like the J3500 and F5v are designed to allow you to create and capture data wherever you are – On the job, on site, in the office, on the street, in the field, on the road. The provision of both four point multi-touch and a smart Active Digitizer pen allow you to do things like:

• Taking fluid handwritten notes – your handwritten notes are searchable too
• Converting your handwriting to text – now or later
• Scribble on you PDFs, Word Documents and Excel spread sheets
• Draw on PowerPoint slides during a presentation
• Annotate and mark up drawings, screenshots and diagrams
• Draw your own designs and sketches wherever you are!

Ultimately, a device like this gives you access to all of the fastest and most convenient methods of input for mobile devices.

What you can expect to see on the Motion CL900:

• Corning Gorilla Glass
• 4 point finger touch and an Active Digitizer (Smart Pen)
• Wide viewing – outdoor readable screen
• Gobi 3000 Mobile Broadband – Fast 3G with any carrier – Telstra Next G, Optus, Vodafone
• Up to 8 hour battery life
• Desktop docking station and other work ready peripherals like payment modules and scanners.

The CL900 is due to arrive in Australia sometime in April, so this is a pre-production example. Brett was kind enough to give us an exclusive interview with the CL900 in Syndey on Monday!

Official pricing and stocked options for the Motion CL900 are still coming. Stay tuned for that and some more videos soon!

One of the most important options for a "Business Grade" tablet PC is a good docking station with connectivity options.

The upcoming Motion Computing CL900 offers a very innovative docking solution that orients the tablet on a horizontal angle – allowing for easy pen and touch use while docked.

As you can see from the picture above, the dock easily allows you to use the CL900 in the office like would a laptop or desktop PC.

CL900 = best of both worlds – A desktop in the office, but a slender lightweight tablet when you’re on the move.

Plug in whatever you want:

• Wireless keyboard and mouse
• Mobile phone
• External Monitor (via adaptor)
• Network cable
• Power for easy charging
• DVD Burner
• USB key

More on CL900 soon…

Here’s Motion Computing’s Mary-Anne Gunn on USA today with the CL900:

Here’s a couple of hands on videos with the CL900 for you:

More Tablet PC news from CES2011 coming up…

Contact us for more information.

We’ve been waiting for a respected company with a strong brand to re-embrace the Tablet form factor introduced with the HP TC1100 and Motion LS800. Austin, Texas based Motion Computing are best placed to meet the needs of this market with their experience as the largest manufacturer of Windows Slate Tablet PCs for business.

The new CL900 utilizes a brand new chipset from Intel called Oak Trail giving it an 8 hour battery life with Dual Core processing performance.

Important things that you’ll want to know about the Motion CL900:

• Includes N-Trig Active Digitizer Pen and 4 point multi-touch screen
• Rugged – Gorilla Glass, MIL810G Drop and IP52 ratings!
• Weighs around 900 grams
• 8 hour battery life
• 10.1” wide screen with HD 1366×768 pixel resolution
• 3G Mobile Broadband and GPS via optional Gobi 3000 module
• Pricing from under US$1,000 – Australian pricing to be confirmed.

The new CL900 is expected in Australia around March this year. It is the small, lightweight companion tablet that many of us have been waiting or since the HP TC1100 and the Motion LS800!

We will be taking pre-orders of this tablets as early shipments will be sold out. We’ll let you know once we have pricing and ETA.

Stay tuned, for our announcement video shortly!

I’ve been using tablet PCs for 8 years now and my experience led me to the J3500. Explaining why is sometimes hard to do, but this German company has encapsulated it in the following video perfectly!

Now you’ve seen that a top class Windows Tablet PC like the J3500 is so much more than magical. It’s productive, versatile, compatible, brilliant and fun!

Over the last two years we have seen Motion Computing bring in some major innovations such as:

• Switching to Intel Core 2 Duo and now Intel Core i7 processors ensuring that mobile workers aren’t stuck with second best (i.e. slow!) technology
• Introducing Corning Gorilla Glass eliminating the weakest point of Tablet PCs rugged and non-rugged alike – the screen
• Bringing to market the Hydis AFFS+ display – in our opinion the best indoor outdoor display technology currently available
• Introducing Windows 7 on all of its products at the launch on October 22 2009 enabling the advantages of the Windows 7 platform to reach customers
• Continuing to embrace and improve mobile broadband technology to make working remotely like being in the office.
• Adding touch to the range with the introduction of the Motion Computing J3500 making it the only Intel Core i7 slate Tablet PC with both touch and pen on the market.

Motion Computing continue to define the slate Tablet PC market and we congratulate them on winning the Microsoft 2010 OEM Partner of the Year Award.

Current Motion Computing products:

• Motion Computing F5v
• Motion Computing C5v
• Motion Computing J3500

For information or a demonstration of the Motion Computing range, please call us on 03 9999 1601 or contact us via our website.