Fashion Statement

Wearable PCs, buoyed by advances in micro hard drives and new optical technology, soon will become married to the world of high-end ERP applications and

wireless networks.

The result will be a new line of mobile PC products that will be favored more by mobile workers such as airline mechanics or warehouse managers, said vendors and distributors.

Xybernaut Corp. and IBM Corp., among others, have begun aggressive marketing and planning for a course that could take the $6,000 wearable PC units into more high-end enterprises and lucrative solutions in 2000.

"It's an opportunity for a reseller to get out there and do something different," said Rick Prayer, product manager at D&H Distributing Inc., a Harrisburg, Pa.-based distributor. "It's not another 'me, too' product like the competition has."

While major vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Compaq Computer Corp. currently do not ship wearable PCs, Xybernaut has been shipping its own line since 1990.

Xybernaut's newest wearable PC, the Mobile Assistant IV, is priced at about $6,000 and includes a color display that fits on a wristband. It has touch-screen functionality and ships with IBM ViaVoice voice-recognition software. The system is based on an Intel Pentium 233MHz processor with MMX technology, as well as Windows 95, 98 or NT.

Prayer said he projects D&H, which recently entered into a distribution agreement with Xybernaut, will ship several hundred wearable PCs in the first half of 2000.

However, Fairfax, Va.-based Xybernaut could make its own line of wearable PCs more attractive for high-end networks in the coming months with some alliances the company is forging.

Xybernaut is in discussions with "a large, SAP [AG] consulting partner" and is "working with them on a wearable ERP solution," said Andy Robinson, director of alliances at Xybernaut.

Xybernaut's goal is to continue marketing wearable PCs as part of an overall solution, Robinson said. To that end, the company is searching for VARs, distributors and integrators with competencies in wireless networks, data-warehousing and ERP solutions.

"We have few people buying the hardware for the sake of buying the hardware," Robinson said. "Sure, they're [cost-conscious], and they will try to negotiate the price down. But they are buying a solution around our hardware."

VARs could offer continued integration and service to their clients, he said.

"This [solution] is really for people who need to look at a PC at the same time they are working. For example, electricians who are wiring a very complicated wiring closet" and need to review complex specifications out of a database, said D&H's Prayer. "That seems to be most of the applications we're selling into,the manufacturing arena."

At a slower rate, wearable PCs also sell into warehousing solutions, Prayer said.

"That would be another good vertical [market] for the product," he said. "Taking orders, packing orders, receiving orders,being able to do bar coding and checking inventory at the same time as unloading a truck. The person actually becomes a node on the network."

Still, some VARs are skeptical.

"I don't think wearable PCs will be a viable option until you get further down the road," said Sean Cable, a sales manager at Laptops Plus Inc., an IBM reseller in Orlando, Fla., that focuses on the portable-computing market.

The wearable PC still lacks items such as graphics intensity and sturdy enough drives for most business environments, Cable said.

International Data Corp., a research firm in Framingham, Mass., estimates the wearable PC market will grow from less than 20,000 unit shipments in the United States in 2000 to more than 165,000 by 2003 for a total U.S. market of almost $650 million.

IBM, Armonk, N.Y., which has been spending millions on researching and developing wearable PCs and which recently aired a national television commercial spotlighting the technology, does not even have plans to sell any, said Bruce Knaack, director of new products at IBM Personal Systems Group.

However, IBM's microdrive and optical technology, among other components it manufactures, could provide more fuel for the wearable PC market, company executives said.

In addition, IBM Japan has been focusing heavily on miniaturizing additional technology that could be adopted by the wearable PC platform, Knaack said.

"I think the microdrive is really a key component," he said. "Prior to this, you had an IDE disk. IDE disks are large, and they have big moving parts. The microdrive was designed to fit into a digital camera and be tossed in someone's back seat."

The wearable PC market now is too small for IBM to commit to shipping the devices in volume, Knaack said. However, the computer giant has put prototypes into about 12 customer accounts and, like Xybernaut, found the need for consulting, integration and service to be significant, he said.

"Even in the pilots we've done, we discovered very early that we couldn't just deliver a system to somebody and say, 'Here, try it,' " Knaack said. "It has to work in their environment with their peripherals and their solution."

For more on wearable PCs, go to: www.crn.com/business