12-31-2003, 05:46 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Microsoft Kills Smart Display
"The Smart Display, a year old, will not make it to 2.0 - Microsoft has told the unfortunate manufacturers who partnered with it in the doomed venture. The idea of a flat panel display which you could pick up and carry around the house sounded like a brilliant idea when it was first mooted, since all it needed was a (presumably, cheap) Windows CE processor and a wireless link. At the time it was not quite as obvious as it is now that it was a dead duck. Now, according to ET News, Microsoft has decided this ugly duckling won't ever become a swan. "Last week, Microsoft sent a letter to a part of smart display developers including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics notifying them that it would immediately abandon the development of 'Smart Display' OS 2.0, according to industry sources," said the Korean news source."
I can't say that this surprises me very much - the Smart Display was a great concept, but hardware and price made it a flop in the market. Did any of you ever buy a Smart Display? What was your experience with it?
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12-31-2003, 05:49 PM
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,998
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Too bad. I think it had enormous potential. But, like you say, it cost way too much. I think most people would have viewed this as a mid-level electronic appliance, but it was priced like a computer. It should have been priced as an accessory if they wanted it to take off.
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12-31-2003, 06:06 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 533
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We purchased three (two 15" and one 17"), for use in a healthcare clinic (I know, they were marketed for home use, but they fit great in our application.....myabe part of the problem is they were incorrect about there target market????). As I said, they've really found a place in the clinic, as they are quick to boot up (instant on thanks to the CE OS), have good battery life, and are as zippy as the desktop you remotely control (which most are P4 zipsters). Also, they worked great over VPN's to!!
Although we didn't have any immediate plans to purchase more, I found this bit of news unfortunate. But I couldn't agree more, at a prices that eclipsed laptops, they were hard to justify, especially when they needed to be tetherd to a desktop (unlike laptops).
-Brian
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12-31-2003, 06:10 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 49
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It's an answer to a question nobody asks.
What is a smart display? If they think people will wander around in the Living room watching TV and hooking up the net with that, they must be kidding. Can you say Audrey and web appliance?
Is it a tablet computer? where are the softwares? It has to perform all the functionality of laptops. But then again, that's what tabletPC is for.
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Personally Tablet PC won't fly either in current form. Too clumsy and useless to perform what most people envision it to be. A notepad replacement.
Another two must die projects:
1. SPOT watch. It'll never take off as they envision it. The push information the watch is capable of displaying are utterly useless for targetted audiance. Only nerds will wear those.
They should have aimed for "fashion" and teen crowd instead. Make the phone able to display pattern, cutesy phrase, electronic pet, or whatever other light weight fun apps. Then it will take off.
Only teen will buy novelty watch. No respectable adult will be cought dead wearing funny looking watch. Sure as hell a stock broker and a heavy sport fan won't wear such idiotic watch. That's what Rolex is for.
2. Media2go. Who wants to buy a portable deivce the size of boat anchor? It's ugly, too proprietary, limited, and I bet expensive too.
hint: that's what PPC is for! just make a PPC with HD and 4inch screen, make it nice, and voila... Media2go is obsolete.
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12-31-2003, 06:17 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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I really liked the concept. In fact I do a very similar thing now with a wireless web pad (sonic blue) using remote desktop to my main XP box. It really works nice.
In my opinion the biggest thing that went wrong (besides price of course) is that they didn't deliver on the multi-user capabilities that Balmer promised. Originally the bigest feature I saw was that little Billy could grab the smart display (setup as a second monitor) and surf the web while Dad was doing taxes. Two user's logged in at the same time! You can't do that with remote desktop, it kicks the current user out to the login when the remote connects. This promised two user mode version of XP got me excited. But when it finally shipped I couldn't find any mention of this capability anywhere. Also it was pretty unclear to be if the second-monitor capability was available on any of the shipping devices.
The other down side of course is that remote desktop (the core technology here) works very well except when it comes to anything high bandwidth like video, audio, games, flash animations etc. So the user experience might let some people down.
BTW if you want a home grown solution: Pick up one of the sonicBlue, ViewSonic or other cheap web pads off of ebay. They are pretty underpowered for surfing the web on their own, but work great to remote control XP. Also if you want to use it as a secondary monitor pick up a copy of maxivista's software based multi-monitor software (www.maxivista.com.) This allows any networked PC (such as a laptop or web pad) to be used as a second or even third monitor.
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12-31-2003, 06:25 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 416
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by johnm
I really liked the concept. In fact I do a very similar thing now with a wireless web pad (sonic blue) using remote desktop to my main XP box. It really works nice.
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What are these web pads you refer to? I searched ebay but couldn't find anything... they sound interesting!
Thanks..
__________________
"And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger."-C.S. Lewis
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12-31-2003, 06:39 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 108
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12-31-2003, 06:47 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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I really liked the concept of a small, portable smart display. But it was effectively ruined as a consumer device when M$ couldn't figure out how to stream video to it. If I can easily stream video via my wireless network and remote connections, M$ should have been able to deliver this.
Oh, yeah it was price way to high for the features delivered, as well. In order to succeed it probably would have had to be priced comparable to an LCD monitor- with a slight bump for the portability. Let's see I'm at the store - I can buy this cool Smart Display for $899.00 or this Laptop that does everything with a bigger LCD for $799.00 -- Hmm. I wonder why nobody is buying the Smart Display?
whydidnt
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12-31-2003, 07:18 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
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The big thing I never understood was why the didn't include ink technology with the smart displays. I mean come on, bundle a copy of XP Tablet with the Smart Display, and let you load it on your desktop. The ink doesn't do much in desktop mode, but would be pretty useful when using the Smart Display.
I read that LG likes the Smart Display, and is going to try to do it with MS's help.
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12-31-2003, 07:35 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 94
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I was really looking forward to them. It seemed like the perfect solution for my wife while I was outof town. She like to do lesson planning while watching the TV but the desktop is in another room. When I take the laptop offshore, she has to resort to the desktop.
I figured $300-500 (the inital supposed to be price) would be worth it to give her what she wanted, and cheaper than a laptop to boot.
The they hit the streets at 999 - 1200 or so and I said NO WAY!! 300-500 would have been fine, but why buy a terminal running CE and Terminal Services for the same price as a laptop!
I truly thing the price killed the concept. If they had been cheaper, they would have flown off the shelves. Guess I'll wait for the CompUSA cleanance sales and eBay sales now.
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"So Shut Up, Live, Travel, Adventure, Bless, And Don't Be Sorry." - Jack Kerouac
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