First, there were wireless LANs. Then came thin clients. Is the world now waiting for a wireless thin client?

The backers of Cruise Technologies, Inc. are betting $12 million that it is. Cruise, a three-month-old start-up in Arlington Heights, Ill., is promoting a new generation of wireless touchpad devices that could give cost-effective data access to workers who don't have a desk to call their own.

Among the workers who could benefit from such devices, its supporters said, are nurses who enter patient data; automotive mechanics who look up part numbers or repair procedures; and warehouse workers who enter inventory information.

Unlike most conventional notebook or handheld computers, wireless thin client devices don't run an application or store data, said S. Christopher Gladwin, president and CEO of Cruise. Instead, they merely display the graphical user interface portion of an application that is running on a nearby Windows NT Server system. More than 60 thin clients can be linked to the server via Proxim, Inc. RangeLAN2 2.4-GHz radio beam. Wireless thin clients could deliver several business advantages. The first is cost: The initial purchase price of a color wireless thin client about $2,700 may approach that of a notebook computer, but the total cost of ownership will be lower, said Scott Merkle, Cruise's marketing vice president. Information systems managers would only need to change the application on the server, rather than install new software on each notebook PC, he says.

Cruise has a strong position in the niche market of workers who need information but can't be tied to a desk, said Brian Murphy, director of client/server research at The Yankee Group in Boston.

The 22-person firm was spun off from the Mobile Systems Group of Zenith Data Systems and is backed by two venture capital firms and Packard Bell NEC, Zenith's owner, which owns a minority stake.

Source: ComputerWorld