jennell2jenson: Fujitsu Q550 Is Yet Another Windows 7 Tablet Competitor

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Fujitsu Q550 Is Yet Another Windows 7 Tablet Competitor

Fujitsu is apparently showing off a Windows 7 tablet at this week's CeBIT conference in Germany. The 10.3-inch device comes loaded with options, including a smartcard reader slot, WiFi and Bluetooth capability, a fingerprint reader, and the ability to alternate between touch- and stylus-based inputs. Fujitsu told eWEEK it will price this Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 at $699, in approximately the same range as other tablets currently on the market.

In a Feb. 25 posting on her blog, Mary Jo Foley mentioned the Q550's 10-hour battery life and 1.5-pound weight. There's also a promotional video drifting around the Internet:

Supposedly, the Q550 also made an appearance at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, although I only remember seeing Windows 7 tablets from Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus in Microsoft's booth. Hewlett-Packard already offers a Windows 7 tablet, the HP Slate 500, and Dell has one in the works.

Like its Hewlett-Packard and Dell cousins, the Q550 is aimed squarely at an enterprise audience--and IT administrators obsessed with security.

"As enterprises struggle to keep consumer smartphones and tablets off their corporate networks to avoid security breaches," reads Fujitsu's Feb. 24 press release, "Fujitsu is taking an alternative approach with the introduction of a companion device designed for maximum interoperability with business environments."

In addition to fingerprint authentication, the Q550 also features a smart card reader, embedded security chip and encrypted SSD. Fujitsu also seems ready to bet that the ability to switch between stylus and touch input, and its built-in handwriting-recognition software, will appeal to enterprise workers' need for versatility. But will it appeal enough to persuade those same workers to not purchase an iPad or Android-based tablet?

In the near-term, I'm not so sure--if only because Apple and Android have been working on making their respective tablet offerings more enterprise-friendly. In the meantime, the wait continues for a broad-based consumer tablet from Microsoft and its manufacturing partners.