I looked at a demo of the U1 from USAT Corp, and it is larger than a Symbol, but smaller than any current tablet. It borrows the keyboard from PDA Phones, but is large enough to run bigger apps (screen, HDD, Atom CPU etc) and regular windows. It is much thicker than other 'competing' devices, but it seems to fit the other add ons (GPS, 3d/2d scanner, WWAN) without significantly altering its dimensions. On the WWAN, I believe USAT said it supports GOBI (Tech to watch #1) as all the Toughbooks do. One note, this is probably a 'top tech' for 2009-- since Panasonic are only shipping in limited quantities today and not with all features. One other note, USAT said they have a vehicle mount and hot dock for it that could attach to truck, fork lift, boat, and so on.
Curious size. Will it work? It is clearly aimed at the field crew or warehouse worker type, but Symbol and Intermec have been very dominate in this space with their form factors. We will see in 2009.
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