Aussie couple takes on computing giants

AN AUSSIE husband and wife team has declared war on Dell and HP in the burgeoning market for low-cost cloud PCs.

John Nicholls, 52, and his missus Jeanne, 47, reckon they can rock the market with a line of tiny PCs, called Hot-e that you can fit into the palm of your hand.

They have been making cheap computers for a while now, but now want to make a faster range, with the entry-level model selling for "just under $US100.

The Nicholls’ low cost PCs are more thin clients with the bare minimum horse power, with most processing and data storage handled by a remote server accessed over the internet.

Nicholls was a commercial pilot until the collapse of Ansett in 2001. He created a company called ThinLinX, which has just partnered with a "major, global company" that makes software.

Now the Aussie press seems to think that he has linked with Vole, but Nicholls was not saying anything other than he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement.

Microsoft... er, the other company, would be making its own announcement within the next month.

HP, Dell and Sun Microsystems are increasingly investing in the development of simple, low-end machines capable of doing little more than hooking into the cloud and browsing the web.

Nicholls said that his computer was a cut-down single board computer. "What we've done is try to reduce the cost as much as possible by reducing the number of chips in it," he said.

It runs on just three watts which makes it ideal for developing countries. µ

L'Inq
Sydney Morning Herald