Unlike some product categories, where unique vendor offerings migrate toward commodity status as the market grows and standards emerge, these products will be close to commodity status when they are introduced. All the products we tested share a common OS, so differentiation will be a challenge for vendors--akin to PC vendors who compete on price, service and support. Clearly, since the premise of thin-client computing is reduced cost of ownership, price is a big issue. However, an enlightened analysis of the big picture shows that the cost of the desktop device is only a fraction of the overall expense associated with system deployment. Given a desktop computer market characterized by free-falling desktop PC prices, the costs for these systems are initially too high. In response, these vendors will feel tremendous pressure to push prices below $500, monitor included.
Performance emerges as the other major differentiator, and here again, all the vendors share a common shortcoming: None offers stellar performance. To a certain extent, this is a by-product of the underlying multiuser remote-presentation Windows technology; Windows terminals will always force IT managers to accept performance compromises in the interest of enhanced manageability. Given the early stage of development of these devices, performance will inevitably improve to the point where most IT managers will deem it "good enough." For the most part, CE WBT performance lags behind earlier Windows terminals, but this trade-off may be acceptable if you value CE's ability to multitask and therefore "hot key" among local applications (such as an ICA session on a WinFrame Server, an RDP session on an NT Terminal Server box and a TN3270 session to a mainframe).
Picking a winner among a group of beta and prebeta products that are, in essence, commodity hardware devices was an interesting challenge. As our Report Card indicates, there isn't a tremendous variation between our rankings and there isn't an "A" student in the class. Nonetheless, we feel comfortable in selecting Network Computing Devices' (NCD) ThinSTAR 200 as our Editor's Choice. NCD offers the best performance at a competitive price, and it is among the first vendors to ship a real live product. Boundless Technologies' Viewpoint TC wasn't too far behind, combining the best overall system design with midrange performance. Tektronix's Thin200CE has a potentially strong offering with one of the most ambitious management frameworks, and with a little more refinement and better quality control, it could be a market winner. And if Neoware Systems and Wyse Technology can improve their products' performance to acceptable levels, they could turn the tables on the leaders.
Network Computing Devices ThinSTAR 200
 NCD's ThinSTAR 200, built around an NEC/MIPS 4300 RISC CPU, is our Editor's Choice because it provided the best combination of features, performance and overall system design at a very competitive price. We had no significant problems with the ThinSTAR--unlike the other products we tested--even though it was a prerelease product. While we weren't crazy about the modular upright design, customers who prefer a more traditional design can choose the ThinSTAR 300, which is based on Intel's lean client design specification.
The ThinSTAR 200 led the pack in performance, barely edging out Tektronix's Thin200CE, which is based on the same NEC/MIPS processor architecture. The initial unit we received was based on an early beta of CE 2.1, and though it was functional, the configuration interface differed slightly from the one found in the Microsoft gold beta release of CE. By installing NCD's ThinSTAR Manager on our NT server, we were able to easily upgrade the ThinSTAR client's operating system over the network.
NCD offers ThinSTAR for $649--it's very aggressive pricing, and the company tops it off with a three-year warranty. To reduce costs, NCD provides local terminal emulation, called the ThinSTAR Connectivity Suite, as an optional add-on. While the unit supports ICA-compatible audio output using a built-in speaker, the unit does not include any jacks for external speakers or a microphone.
Boundless Technologies Viewpoint TC CE-Based Windows-Based Terminal
While other vendors promise to include integrated terminal-emulation capabilities in the shipping version of their products, the Viewpoint TC from Boundless Technologies was the only product we tested that actually provided this feature. These capabilities include VT320, TN3270 and TN5250 emulation. In that respect, Boundless was ahead of the competition, but its overall strategy in releasing a CE Windows-based terminal is a bit more cautious than that of some of the other vendors. Given the immaturity of CE 2.1, it's really not such a bad idea.
Overall, we liked the Viewpoint a lot. The unit we received was designated as prebeta, and in some respects, it showed. The initial unit we received was limited to 640x480 display resolution. A later version let us bump the resolution up to 1,024x768. Nonetheless, the Viewpoint is a solid offering from a vendor that has considerable experience in the Windows terminal market.
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