On March 21, 2001, 3Com announced that it was discontinuing its' Internet appliance product Audry, the household digital assistant. Following the quiet announcement of this secession, we can't help but wonder if the 'webpad' as we know it is preemptively obsolete.

It seems like only a year or so ago the buzz word was 'Internet appliance'. This conjured up visions of fridge's and toasters with instant access to email and web browsers. The market seemed to leap at the concept of Internet everywhere, at any time. The 1999 Comdex trade show was full of devices that promised complete mobility by means of wireless networks, integrated touch-sensitive flat panel displays, and the like. For Transmeta, the 2000 Fall Comdex show held a special opportunity to demonstrate webpad concepts from Hitachi, Fic, Sewoo, and S3.

Since Comdex Fall 2000, only the S3 webpad, produced by a subsidiary called Frontpath has come to market, and then only the vertical market. The makers of the Progear reportedly struggled for several months attempting to find a valid business model which would enable them to market their web pad directly to consumers. In the end the cost of the flat panel display was apparently the mitigating factor in their decision to stick with commercial customers for the time being.

Where are the sales?

With the residual interest in webpads one has to wonder where the burgeoning sales are? The most obvious answer that comes to mind is that the webpad's feature is none too bright, while those all important price point still remain too high. In simple terms, webpads cost too much to make, and offer too little to the consumer. On top of that, there are a few factors which lead towards uncertainty in the viability of the webpad formfactor altogether.

Enter the tablet computer.

The tablet PC is a compromise between a full-fledged notebook (or sub-notebook) and a webpad. Tablets have many of the features that notebook computers have (full OS, hard drive, CDROM, PCMCIA, etc.), but supposedly without all the bulk. As with their webpad cousins, tablets are operated primarily from a touch-sensitive screen. The larger format TFT display enables more screen space for work, and the user generally has the option to write with a stylus, or virtual on-screen keyboard.

It is this very absence of a real keyboard which may cause the most problems when tablets hit the mainstream commercial market. The manufacturers remove the keyboard to make the device hyper-portable, but also remove the most common and intuitive aspect of the user interface.

Internet Access Costs, Wireless Costs More

While broadband is still sweeping across North America steadily, those of us with it right now are well aware of the cost. Despite the lure of wireless webpads, little thought has gone towards the cost of the wireless access point. No access point, and no wireless internet. No wireless internet and the webpad is of no great value. Adding extra costs like access points on top of what the webpad itself costs all of sudden makes one begin to feel like their at a dealership buying a new car....

Compatibility is an Issue

While the features of webpads will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, the fact remains that for those devices which are based on flash memory the extent to which data can be used is limited. Part of the lure of the tablet computer is the ability to install Office and use the data from the internet, instead of just viewing it. Not to be forgotten, is the question of what happens when a webpad user visits a website requiring a jumble of plug-ins. Do the sites that rely heavily on flash, javascript, streaming audio, or shockwave even load in the Netscape Gecko Browser?

The issues with webpads run multilevel, from the profitability of manufacturing them, to the value they potentially bring to consumers. What is obvious is that the old notion of what a webpad was, and contained, is no longer commercially valid. Like all things in technology, the 'webpad' as a descriptive tag for a type of portable technology, must innovate and advance if it is to have a successful shot at the mainstream retail market in the future. Under current conditions this just seems less and less likely.