'Ruggedised' vs 'Rubberised'
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Yes, we agree: it's a bit gimmicky. But the facts speak for themselves. These are not simplky commercial devices that have had a makeover to look 'tough'. These are serious tools, designed to survive in the Geat Outdoors, by being intrinsically more 'rugged'. . |
If consumer magazine trials don't carry much weight with you, then consider the many customers who have had Opentecs in service for many years after trying and experiencing significant performance problems with - or have simply destroyed - products from other vendors that were marketed to them as being 'truly rugged', claims that turned out to be very rubbery at best. Take for example the Australian Navy Hydrographic Office, which provides coastal mapping services for the Navy, as well as commercial shipping in Australian waters. They rely absolutely on their portable computers to run their side-scan sonar and on-board mapping systems. Without relaible computers, they can't operate the service that they are mandated by law to provide. So why have they repeatedly, year after year, purchased Opentecs, despite trialling other allegedly 'rugged' products. The simple fact is that nothing else has survived for so long, nor peformed as reliably, on board their small aluminium dinghis whilst at sea. Years of salt air and spray, impacts resulting from choppy seas, repeated transfers from ship to ship and ship to shore, daily washdowns after being used, all take their toll - unless a device is genuinely rugged. As Navy Hydro knows, a few rubber port covers and some rubber corners do NOT a rugged computer make. And because they absolutely MUST have reliable computers at sea to operate, they absolutely must have the most durable portable computers. They've assessed Opentecs as that product. From our custom motherboards (designed to protect components and stop them coming adrift), to the double-sealed ports (featuring not only rubber dust caps, but a second sealed bulkhead, through which sealed connecting cables attach to the motherboard, further protecting it from dust or moisture damage), to the sealed keyboards on our notebook (featuring not only sealed keys that will still work even if covered in mud; and which is totally isolated from the motherboard), Opentecs are NOT commercial devices with a few 'toughened' features added, but are built from the ground up to BE rugged. Sure of the engineering behind all our products, we exhibited at the Pacific 2008 Expo in Sydney in February 2008, where we parked a 2.4 tonne 4WD on an RPC notebook. As expected, it ran continuously, without fault, for four days straight. Feeling a bit cheeky, we even invited another supplier of 'toughened' computers to let us park our 2.4 tonne 4WD on one of their notebooks. Not surprisingly, they declined. Compared to the 4WD crush resistance demo, surviving in a simulated sandstorm for 4 days was easy (another one of our Pacific 2008 displays). After all, we'd already demonstrated an RPC's dust resistance at IDEX 2007 for 6 days, where users seemed amazed that, despite being covered in a torrent of sand, the mousepad and touchscreen still worked, the LCD could still easily be seen, and the keypad didn't become clogged with grit and stop working. But because Opentecs have survived in field since 2000 in Australia's red deserts as part of the national defence system, we knew they'd survive this simulation. So ask yourself if the product you're considering really is RUGGEDISED or is just RUBBERISED. Then call us to arrange a test drive of one of our fully ruggedised products. |
