Microsoft to Debut Portable PC Screen

Microsoft Corp. said Monday that display maker ViewSonic Corp. will start selling a portable flat-panel screen that can be taken off the desk and used to operate a computer via a wireless link.

The Smart Display is Microsoft’s latest bid to let people access their computers without being tied to a desk, following the release last week of the Tablet PC.

Once detached, the new display will allow people to gain access to e-mail, the Internet, music and everything else on their computers from a separate location via a wireless connection. It can also be used at a desk. The displays, which were developed under the code name “Mira,” come with a pen stylus that works like a mouse.

Walnut-based ViewSonic, a closely held maker of computer screens and flat-panel displays, will start selling 10-inch and 15-inch Smart Displays sometime during the first three months of 2003, Microsoft said in a statement. The displays are expected to sell for $999 and $1,299, respectively.

Since they can do anything that can be done on the desktop, the displays are meant to let users work on a computer without being tied to the computer’s actual location in the home. They run on Microsoft software that communicates with a personal computer running the Windows XP operating system.

With sales of desktop PCs slowing, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is trying to move away from the desktop and into living rooms and people’s pockets.

Other companies, such as Philips Electronics and NEC Corp., are also planning to make Smart Displays.

Meant to be used in households, the Smart Display is different from the Tablet PC, a pen-based portable computer targeted at professional and business users.

Microsoft shares fell $1.24 Monday to close at $53.86 in Nasdaq trading.