First mobile thin client notebook released in ANZ

Stan Beer
Thursday, 12 April 2007 17:18

Your IT - Home IT

The thin client concept has gone mobile in Australia with the announcement that Neoware has released its m100 thin client notebook in Australia and New Zealand. The Neoware m100 has no hard drive and does not allow information to be stored locally. But for a thin client, it comes at a fairly steep price.

With Neoware’s m100, all files and applications remain on the organisations’ server. The Neoware m100 notebook supports the Microsoft Windows XPe and Linux operating systems and retails from AUD$1249 with Linux and AUD$1279 with Microsoft Windows XPe.

Neoware’s Asia Pacific Managing Director, Michael McGrath said, “I have already seen significant interest from local companies in initial testing and am confident that its benefits, including increased management, support and security, will resonate very strongly with Australian organisations. It is a truly unique offering that mitigates a key enterprise risk associated with the proliferation of the mobile workforce; mobile users can get access to their information anywhere, anytime while the data is always kept secure, by being ‘in’ the enterprise.”

Glynis Marks, Director Marketing ANZ for Citrix Systems said that the information access afforded by the Neoware m100 is changing how thin clients can be deployed. She says, "Mobile users have always required flexible access to applications and information from any location, what's great about Neoware m100 is it works with Citrix application delivery infrastructure and provides secure, on-demand access to information for mobile workers."

Michael McGrath also sees the Neoware m100 thin client notebook as a critical step in the evolution of thin clients. He said, "Thin clients have been heralded for more than a decade as a secure and easy-to-administer computing model. But until now, using a thin client largely meant users were confined to a physical desk, impeding the adoption of thin clients for industries with a large number of workers who need mobile access. In a world where fears over data security are increasing, the Neoware m100 paves the way for a new workforce that is safer, more secure, and mobile, while opening up a new segment of the PC market for Neoware."

With no hard drive or fan, the Neoware m100 thin client notebook has no moving parts, and therefore operates silently with claimed superior reliability and a battery life of more than six hours. The Neoware m100 features a 15-inch screen, a variety of available country keyboards, and has the capability for Ethernet, USB, built-in Wi-Fi, or cellular connections, which enable data to be accessed from a variety of locations including offices, homes, and hotels.