They Take Licking, Keep on Ticking

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — When FieldWorks Inc. blasted three of its laptop computers into space this February, it was looking to make a point.

If the machines endured vibrations from a rocket liftoff that would cripple most portables, they surely would survive a drop from an airliner’s overhead compartment. The PCs not only made it to the Russian Mir space station but were used by cosmonauts to capture and view images from the camera on Mir’s robot arm.

“Our laptops will survive 100 times the force of gravity,” said FieldWorks founder and Chief Executive Gary Beeman. “That would kill a man.”

While notebook computer makers such as Compaq Computer Corp. trim their portables to ever-sleeker dimensions, FieldWorks and a few competitors are selling brawny laptops that withstand a clunk on the ground--or a trip into space. It’s a small yet growing business aimed at mobile workers who demand a PC they don’t have to coddle.

“People are getting tired of losing their laptop because it can’t tolerate the bumps and scrapes of an airport or bouncing around the trunk of a car,” said Martin Mortenson, an analyst at market researcher Gartner Group.

Sales of rugged laptops are expected to rise 39% to $823 million by 1999 from about $593 million this year, said Randy Giusto, an analyst at International Data Corp. FieldWorks PCs range from $5,000 to $8,000, as much as double the price of a standard notebook.

*

FieldWorks sells most of its laptops to specialized occupations. Police in New York City rely on FieldWorks PCs to check driver’s licenses from their cars. Utility and oil workers test vital systems atop telephone poles or in wind-swept deserts.

The staff at Disneyland uses a FieldWorks notebook to monitor performance of the “Indiana Jones” ride, while an expedition on Mount Everest reported that its model worked perfectly after brushing the frost off each morning.

The laptops appeal in such situations because they are water-resistant, encased in shock-absorbing rubberized magnesium, and offer large expansion slots for radios and other accessories.

“A FieldWorks laptop is an open tool box,” Beeman said on a recent visit to New York to explain his company to investors.

FieldWorks machines weigh in at 11 to 14 pounds, about twice as heavy as a regular laptop. They’re up to 15 inches wide, making them bulkier too.

Ordinary laptops, although getting stronger, are still likely to break after a fall from shoulder height. FieldWorks machines are built to military specifications and have withstood a run in a dishwasher, burial in four feet of snow and a confrontation with an 18-wheeler, Beeman said. Beeman is betting that such feats will impress investors.

The Eden Prairie, Minn.-based company went public last month in a $13.8-million IPO, raising the initial offering to 2.125 million shares from 1.75 million. Since the offer price of 6 1/2, the shares have slipped and recently traded at 5 1/8.

FieldWorks had sales last year of $13.1 million and a loss of $3.3 million, or 50 cents a share. It will be profitable “soon,” Beeman said, attributing the loss to adding workers and expanding its production site to prepare for future growth.

FieldWorks doesn’t have a lock on the business, though. XL Computing, a division of Cycomm International Inc., shipped its first rugged computer, the PCMobile, three years ago. XL vice president for business and product development Kent Bartlett said sales last year were $14 million and will double this year.

“The market is exploding,” Bartlett said. There are 300,000 police and sheriff patrol cars in the U.S and only a handful are equipped with notebook computers, he said.

Linda Killian, a fund manager at Renaissance Capital Corp., which watches the IPO market, said she looked at FieldWorks and decided not to invest.

“It was a little small for us, but also there’s a worry it’s a market that a large competitor could enter easily,” she said.

Panasonic, a unit of Matsushita Electric Corp., is one of the few big electronics makers in the rugged laptop market, unveiling its CF25 model in October.

Other notebook makers including Compaq, Toshiba Corp. and International Business Machines Corp., see the market as too small, said IDC analyst Giusto.

IBM stopped making its rugged ThinkPads because its target business professional was more interested in light and slim than tough and heavy, said Kevin Clark, a brand manager for ThinkPad.

FieldWorks does sell laptops to business people, who may be leery of dropping an ordinary model before a big presentation.

Yet its main customers are outside the mainstream, like Mark Stainbrook. He’s crew chief of the Chitwood Motor Racing Team, which began using FieldWorks PCs in this year’s Indy 500 season.

Racing crews nowadays tap into computers to receive radio signals from the cars during a race, monitoring fuel burn, suspension travel and tire pressure. The old laptops took so much abuse that the team had to replace several after each race, Stainbrook said.

FieldWorks computers haven’t required a single repair, even after being trampled by the pit crew, he said.

“Take a walk down the pit lane, and you’ll see laptops in the gutter, in an oil drum, or sitting on top of pieces of engines,” Stainbrook said.

And they still work.