With most manufacturers releasing Android tablets for the consumer market, Panasonic has chosen to go the opposite direction by announcing plans to deliver an enterprise-grade Android tablet.
Panasonic describes its Toughbook as being designed with enterprise strength hardware security, real life durability, reliability, and marketed to “appeal to a wide variety of users, including mission critical government personnel, highly mobile field forces, SMB’s looking for a competitive edge, security conscious IT managers, and bottom-line focused CFOs”.
There isn’t’ a lot of information on the version of Android operating system nor hardware specifications, such as processor type, speed, memory, etcetera, available for the Toughbook tablet at the moment, other than it will spot a 10.1” XGA multi-touch non-glossy display (1024×768) that will be readable outdoors, GPS enabled and Wifi enabled with the option of an embedded 3G or 4G mobile broadband connection.
Having analyzed the available pictures of the Toughbook (see above), there’s certainly evidence of ruggedness in the exterior design. The black edge on the front exterior look like it may be made of some rubberised material that will provide a non slippery grip as well as providing some impact cushioning if the Toughbook was accidentally dropped and hit a hard surface at its edges. There is no information on the type of screen used, though I assume it’s a type of toughened glass, like Gorilla glass. I am wondering if the 10 black dots depicted in the back cover picture are raise rubberised dots that provide some stability and prevent the tablet from slipping and sliding when placed on a slippery or tilted surface?
Also, with all that body armor, I am expecting the Toughbook to be heavier than the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and the Acer Iconia tablet, which were arguably the most enterprise ready tablets prior to the announcement of the Toughbook.
What about battery life? Well, Panasonic says the Toughbook will have a “full-shift” battery, which I assume means it’ll last a full work shift (ie, all day battery life). Hopefully, this is a replaceable battery so the user can swap a depleted battery for a fresh one and can last though double or triple work shifts (eg, mining and medical that run 24/7 ) without having to be chained to the power supply.
The Toughbook also has an active stylus which is important for an enterprise tablet as it allows for signatures and hand writing — the only other device we’ve seen of this sort so far has been the HTC Flyer. Unlike the Flyer, I like how the stylus gets tucked away neatly and unobtrusively at the back of the tablet.
Unfortunately, there is no information on the connectivity options but one would assume the offerings of a USB 2.0, HDMI, and full-sized SD (due to enterprise targetting, I am expecting these to be full-sized to co-exist with enterprise issued USB flash drives and SD cards).
I can foresee the Toughbook appealing to a broad range of enterprises. from outdoors mining transportation (which requires a tough tablet that is readable outdoors, has GPS and in-built mobile broadband capabilities, and can brave the weather and survive tumbles) to indoors sales and medical where the ability the ability to write and sign will be appreciated.
I will be interested to know if this purpose-built enterprise tablet will carry an hefty price tagm possibly making it too pricey for the everyday consumer to consider.
As security is of paramount important in all enterprise organisations, the Toughbook is touted as being enterprise-grade security ready and thus another acid test will be how complex it will be to integrate and support these tablets on each enterprises’ existing security infrastructure.
Panasonic has indicated that the Toughbook will be available in Q4 of this year, so let’s see if the tough(book) gets going then!
