OXFORD, United Kingdom-In an effort to drive General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) traffic, Vodafone has struck a deal with Fujitsu Siemens that will see the cell-phone operator offer a laptop, GPRS PCMCIA card and subscriber identity module (SIM) as a pre-configured bundled solution to business travelers.
The company, which confirmed this is the first time it has entered the laptop arena, said it will launch the product this month in Germany, followed by the United Kingdom and then the rest of Europe during 2003. Vodafone admitted the objective behind bundling everything is to make it easy for business users to access their corporate local area networks (LANs) without the need for complicated system configurations.
However, a Vodafone spokesman added that, while the deal with Fujitsu Siemens is the first it has signed, it is in discussions with Dell, Compaq and IBM about similar arrangements. More interestingly, the company confirmed it is considering offering a bundle based around the forthcoming Tablet PC device that Microsoft plans to formally unveil in early November. However, the likely cost of a Tablet PC bundle would increase the price by more than 1,500 euro (US$1,480), making it only suitable for power users.
