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IBM and Toshiba may work with notebook companies in Taiwan to launch low-priced Tablet PCs, according to sources at Taiwanese notebook makers. The two computer giants have been in frequent contact with some Taiwanese notebook makers for potential orders of Tablet PCs with retail prices to be set at around US$1,299, according to sources.

The moves are widely seen by the local notebook industry as much-needed recognition of the Tablet PC market, which has experienced faltering sales despite high expectations in the beginning. Both major Tablet PC vendors, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer, were reported to have suffered from plunging global Tablet PC sales in early 2003. According to sources, Acer’s Tablet PC sales now account for less than 10% of the company’s total notebook sales, while HP’s Tablet PCs contribute only 2-3% of the company’s notebook shipments.

Relatively high prices are the key reason behind the lukewarm market response. In addition, Microsoft, a major sponsor of the Tablet PC, has not given hardware companies as much support as it originally planned, sources said. As the gap between the production costs of Tablet PCs and regular notebooks is expected to narrow to US$100-200 in the second half of this year, it will be more plausible to have low-priced Tablet PCs and demand should increase, said local notebook makers.

News source: DigiTimes

Users now typically store company passwords on their handheld devices as well as their own personal data such as bank and credit card details. A quarter of users said they also downloaded corporate data.

But 73 per cent of companies have no specific security policy for mobile devices, Pointsec said.

According to the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC), the responsibility for securing data lies with businesses, regardless of whether devices are personally owned or bought by the company for business use.

"The responsibility for securing data lies with the company under the seventh principle of the Data Protection Act," an OIC spokeswoman said.

"This says companies must ensure that there are appropriate technologies and procedures in place such as encryption and passwords to protect data.

"A person whose data was inappropriately retrieved if a PDA was stolen could have the right to claim compensation."

Although there are no official statistics, the Pointsec survey shows a potentially serious problem for companies.

"While we haven't seen any high-profile cases, if a doctor or social worker or a high-ranking executive in a bank has their PDA stolen, someone is going to sue an organisation," Magnus Ahlberg, managing director at Pointsec, told vnunet.com.

"The Data Protection Act states that the company or IT manager is responsible for the protection of information. There is also the risk of industrial espionage."

Even simple security measures such as ensuring the devices are password protected are ignored, according to Ahlberg.

"It is still a reasonably immature technology. There are trials of encryption software underway, but it is still in the early stages and there is a long way to go," he said.