Leveraging on its acquisition of Wyse – a thin client maker – last year, Dell is apparently working on their next PC which essentially operates more like a thin client rather a traditional full-fledged PC that most of us are accustomed to. Named as Ophelia, the Android-based PC has a very small footprint – in fact, it is actually as small as an average USB thumb drive.
The Android OS within Ophelia is responsible tasks such as voice and video streams but users are able to connect to other OS – whether it is Windows, Mac OS, Google Chrome OS, Citrix cloud software or Dell’s own custom cloud solutions – remotely through Internet. To operate it, all one got to do is plug Ophelia to a display and connect it to Internet through Wi-Fi connection. Ophelia also supports keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth.
The tricky part in using Ophelia is that it utilizes Mobile High-Definition Link which is not yet popular among display manufacturers for the time being. That being said, Dell has stated that Ophelia could be powered using USB as well.
Expected to be out in the second half of 2013, Dell has not yet determined the official pricing for Ophelia but Tarkan Maner – Dell’s vice president of cloud operations – has said that the company is aiming to make Ophelia available with a price tag that starts from RM 151 (USD 50) onwards.
