It has been a busy few months for Microsoft with three key technologies - a trio it hopes will shape the future of computing - finally heading for the stores.
At the end of last year it debuted the Tablet PC (billed as the successor to the laptop), while later in 2003 will see the launch of the entertainment application-rich Media Centre version of Windows XP.
Microsoft's third key technology for 2003, the Smart Display, has received less of a fanfare. The evolution of the company's long-talked about Mira project, Smart Displays are billed as the future of the PC monitor.
They are essentially LCD slabs that - when placed in their base station, connected to a desktop PC - function as a standard monitor. But pluck them from the base station and, via a wireless Wi-Fi (802.11b) network, they morph into a kind of tablet that can access core functions of their host desktop PC as the user roams around their home/office.
As they are tethered to the host PC, unlike Tablet PCs with Wi-Fi functionality, Smart Displays won't work outside of the network they are tied to.
This week I took delivery of the Philips DesXcape - the second Smart Display to reach the UK. Viewsonic got there first with a pair of displays launched at the end of February.
A first glance this is a very impressive piece of kit. It's a 15-inch monitor, which delivers the high-resolution performance the company's screens are noted for. The screen is also fairly light and portable.
Surprisingly, given the complexities of wireless systems, the DesXcape was very easy to set up. Philips brings its no-nonsense consumer electronics approach to the installation, which means that if the user carefully follows the instructions their DesXcape will be up and running within twenty minutes.
Pretty soon I was wandering through my house tuning into an internet radio station while keeping an eye on my e-mail via Outlook Express.
Interacting with the monitor is also reasonably simple. Philips supplies a stylus that operates an on-screen keyboard. For more text heavy application like sending e-mail I was quite pleased that Philips had bundled a RF wireless keyboard Philips with the monitor. There's also a handwriting recognition system for users to master too.
So far so good, yet while I expect friends will be wildly impressed by a monitor they can use to surf the web in the bathroom, anyone who spends too long with a Smart Display will soon uncover its weaknesses.
The first occurs during set up. To function, the displays require a feature called Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to connect to its host PC. As standard Windows XP is without RDP, the displays will only work with the Pro edition of the operating system.
Philips does supply this with the monitor, but you will have lost an hour of your life installing XP Pro before you get anywhere near having wireless fun with the monitor.
Second, Smart Displays are inevitably compromised by the limitations of the 802.11b standard. This runs at up to 11Mbps - fast enough to stream audio, but video? Well, fed by an ultra fast 2Mbps broadband Internet connection I could stream rather shakey video (in this instance MPEG4 standard) from the web on the DesXcape.
Yet users who want to watch a DVD video remotely from their PC will get a blank screen. They will have to wait until a faster version of the Wi-Fi standard (802.11a or 802.11g) emerges later in the year, and sadly this Smart Display cannot be upgraded.
Another disadvantage is that if the DesXcape is in use wirelessly the host PC is locked. So, for example, if the user's main PC was a laptop they wouldn't be able to use it at the same time as the Smart Display was roaming.
Microsoft's EMEA product manager for Smart Displays, Nancy Nemes, admitted that this issue, termed concurrency, was uppermost in the company's mind and it was something the company might address when the second version of Smart Displays is launched sometime in the future.
In spite of the above reservations my first week with as Smart Display has been a positive one. I can see a market for the product in consumers who want to upgrade their monitors and yet don't want to deal with the complexities of setting up a full wireless network.
There's also a second market for tech-savvy consumers who will incorporate the DesXcape as part of their existing wireless network.
At the current time though, the DesXcape's price of around £1000 will probably be enough to put most potential buyers off.
However, even though that is still way above the normal cost for a 15inch LCD monitor, Microsoft's Nancy Nemes is confident Smart Displays will become more affordable as LCD monitors tumble in price.
A monitor that enables its user to operate their PC anywhere in the home is clearly an appealing idea. The ease of use and installation of the DesXcape is also to be applauded. Quite how many takers Philips will have for the monitor at this early stage of the technology's life cycle though is another matter.
