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 THE STAT 26Percentage of wireless customers who use their cell phones to take picturesMore Vitals
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JUNE 8, 2004
Bye-Bye Boring Beige Box PC makers are starting to crank out designs that capitalize on a host of new technologies aimed at making computers far more exciting Space-age batteries, mammoth 500-gigabyte storage banks, and foldable high-resolution displays are neat, but they're not the sort of thing that gets Joe Consumer to fork over hard-earned dollars. That requires innovation of a different sort: the ability to turn these components into compelling computers that fill a definite need -- and look good doing it. For years now, this brand of innovation has been one of tech's scarcest commodities. Sure, Apple Computer (AAPL ) CEO Steve Jobs has turned his company into the computer world's artistic trend-setter, churning out inventive products -- from stately laptops to revolutionary music players. After that, the pickings get pretty slim: mostly me-too products, with a smattering of poorly conceived duds. In many ways, this is understandable -- an inevitable artifact of how the computer industry evolved. Over the years, PC makers have relied more and more on the Wintel team of Microsoft (MSFT ) and Intel (INTC ) to set the design rules for what computers will do and how they'll look. That has created gigantic economies of scale, since everyone gets to sell a few types of models to hundreds of millions of consumers. But it has confined creativity. HEAT WAVE. Rather than fight the tide, most PC makers have gone right along with it. In large part, even designing next year's garden-variety PC is hard enough, primarily because of one problem: heat. While former Intel Chairman Gordon Moore once famously predicted that chips would double in speed every 18 months, he forgot to mention they would also run much hotter. That means PC designers must spend the bulk of their time just making sure new models work inside tried and true form factors, rather than on brainstorming new approaches. Says Gary Elsasser, Gateway's (GTW ) vice-president for technology and platform development: "The reliability of the computer is the top priority. If necessary, we'll sacrifice the form factor." But now, pressure could be building for a new approach. The PC is facing increasing competition for the buyer's dollar from gadgets such as camera-equipped smart phones that double as PDAs and cable services that deliver e-mail, digital photography, and other services along with basic TV. INTERNAL MAKEOVER. Certainly, efforts to spice up the basic PC will continue. Designers are looking at new materials to give PCs a less-plastic feel. Apple has led the charge with titanium and now aluminum models. And around the corner are "inmolding" technologies, where colored plastics are topped off with a textured, metallic sheen for a more high-end look. But Intel and Microsoft have bigger changes in mind. Later this year, models based on a new internal design called PCI Express will hit the market. By cranking up the speed at which internal components such as graphics chips and memory modules talk to each other, PCs will be far better at handling real-time jobs, such as keeping a phone line clear for a conversation or playing music or video. The new design also will enable designers to cram far more electronics into less space. Laptops should close the speed gap with more spacious desktops. Today, consumers who want a "desktop replacement" with all the bells and whistles normally have to go with 9-pound, three-inch-thick clunkers. With PCI Express, it should be possible to stuff all the goodies into thinner, 6-pound forms, says Tom Bernhard, director of strategic product planning for Fujitsu Computer Systems. "You're going to see really good performance in thinner, lighter notebooks," he adds. HIDING THE NOISE. Intel's embrace of Wi-Fi, the popular wireless networking technology that's now used in millions of homes and thousands of coffee shops, also will create new design possibilities. Increasingly, Intel is making Wi-Fi a standard feature of most motherboards. That means all the elements of a PC will no longer have to be housed in one box -- or even physically connected. Intel has worked with design house Ideo on a concept, dubbed "Florence," in which noisy elements such as the hard drive and fan are lodged in a barebones "brick" that can go under the desk. Components that the user physically accesses -- like the DVD drive, Web cam, and such -- are integrated into a slick, stand-alone display that can sit anywhere in the house. Then there's a wireless keyboard, and a remote control to watch TV or call up music or movies stored on the hard-drive. There's even a remote that doubles as a phone. That could be particularly useful, as more phone calls travel over the Internet, via voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology, rather than over the Baby Bells' traditional networks. The power in this vision goes beyond just look and feel. More significant is how it could change the way consumers use technology to simplify and enhance their lives. For example, the Florence family of prototypes includes a fingerprint reader to instantly log each person onto the system. That way, Florence can personalize its services: tuning itself to better understand your particular voice for processing VoIP phone calls or calling up playlists of your favorite music.
BW MALL
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