Corel Corp. [NASDAQ:COSFF][TSE:COS] said it formally launched its Corel Computer Corp. spin-off company, which will be comprised of Corel's video and network computing (NC) divisions. The new company will also focus on offering hardware and software products to corporations.

The new company, announced last March, will initially be a wholly owned subsidiary of Corel, officials said. Corel expects that its subsidiary will gain enough revenue from video product and development work in the Java arena to stand on its own in the next 12 months or less. Both Corel and Corel Computer will share Dr. Michael Cowpland as their chairman.

Corel Computer's product offerings will be initially built around: CorelVideo desktop videoconferencing; the forthcoming Corel Video Network Computer, which will reportedly join communications and computing on the desktop; and the CorelVideo Compression CAM, which offers users video communications over either corporate networks or ordinary copper phone lines.

About 80 employees will move to the new company, which will be located in Ottawa but separate from its corporate parent, officials also said.

Another product recently announced by the new subsidiary is its midrange notebook NC, scheduled for release this fall. Corel, which had already announced plans for a network computer last year, is still hammering out the design for a notebook version of the machine, and hopes to deliver the mobile unit in November.

The midrange notebook is expected to cost in the vicinity of $2,500, and will come with a hard disk drive so that data can be downloaded from the network and the system can be used while not connected. When the machine is reconnected to the network, it will synchronize the data on its hard drive with that on the network automatically, Bendsza said.

The mobile NC is to be based on the StrongARM processor, a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) chip developed by Digital Equipment Corp. and Advanced RISC Machines. It is expected to rely heavily on the Java programming language, which Corel has been backing enthusiastically, but will probably support Microsoft Windows as well.

This mobile NC is a kind of second coming of Corel's mobile plans, Newsbytes notes. The company announced plans last year to develop a personal digital assistant with built-in video capabilities, originally meant to ship by this spring, but then shelved that plan in order to concentrate its attention on its network computer.