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Dependent on the Cloud
Dell said the Project Ophelia device will be available in the first half of this year. Some news reports indicate the price will be less than $100.
Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, said Project Ophelia "points toward a future where the big computing box disappears." At least for the near future, he said, this kind of small-device computing is "dependent on the cloud" for its storage and access to applications.
Kay suggested that, while this technology "may be a little early" for market acceptance, this kind of client computing could be useful for "task workers, although not for power workers." He noted that many companies understand the computing needs of their users lie in tiers of required capabilities, and this kind of device might work well for the lower tiers.
Earlier this month, Canonical released its new Ubuntu OS for smartphones, which enabled such a smartphone to similarly act as small-device thin client, as well as an Ubuntu-based PC , when docked with an available monitor, keyboard and mouse. As a cloud-based computing device, Project Ophelia also echoes the intention of Google's cloud-based Chromebook notebooks.
Roger Jennings:
Posted: 2013-02-08 @ 1:40pm PT
Re: At least for the near future, he said, this kind of small-device computing is "dependent on the cloud" for its storage and access to applications.
You can plug a USB memory stick or disk drive into the USB port. There's no need for cloud storage unless you prefer it.
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