Fourier Tablet PCs Aim For Schools

The Israeli company has a plan to capitalize on the US “No Child Left Behind” initiative by developing tablet PCs for a market that could scale up to 55 million kids in five years.

The market being created by the Bush Administration’s initiative and motivation to start digitizing the field of education could spawn a $25 billion market. TabletPCReviewSpot noted that Fourier Systems and its Nova5000 stand ready to gain from that market, which should start with a need for schools to equip five million students starting next year and increasing after that.

Fourier’s Nova5000 would cost $399. Company CEO Dov Bruker said in Globes that it was a low price compared to alternatives from competitors. “We have produced a computer with the functions of a laptop for the price of a PDA,” he said.

That price could come down even more. Bruker said Fourier’s plans would have it reach one to two million pupils in 2007, at a price of $300 per student. Fourier would enter the US market through the distribution platforms available from Dell, Ingram Micro, and CDW.

The company wants to find a strategic partner in the publishing sector to help the Nova 5000 reach the market. That could lead Fourier to pair with someone like Scholastic or McGraw-Hill, both powers in the field of publishing for schools.

On the specification side, Fourier said the Nova5000 runs on Windows CE 5.0, with word processing, spreadsheet, and wireless web and email capabilities. The company claimed the battery would last a full school day, through use of a Suspend button to conserve battery life when the Nova5000 is not in use.

Its built-in 64MB of RAM and 128MB of storage memory drops to 32MB and 94MB respectively after Windows CE and the bundled software for the Nova5000 has been installed. Fourier uses the Intel PXA 255 400 Mhz processor, which was designed for embedded systems, in this Tablet PC.

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