Tiny Computers Market Research

(This is current as of January 2012)

Any display system need two hardware elements: a monitor and a computer. Some solutions can have both combined into one product, such a laptop, tablet, or smart monitor.

##Tiny Computers

Manufacturer Model Wifi Ethernet VGA HDMI DVI USB ports RAM

HDD/SSD Price

Foxconn NT425H yes yes yes yes no 2 Not included Not included $130

Globalscale GuruPlug Display no yes no yes no 5 12 MB DDR2 512 MB $199

Globalscale D2Plug yes yes yes yes no 2 1 GB DDR3 8 MB Flash $249

Globalscale SheevaPlug no yes no no no 1 512 MB DDR2 512 MB Flash $99

MSI MS-9A19 no yes no no yes 2 Not included Not included $321

MSI WindBOX II yes yes no no yes 4 1 GB 160 GB $392

MSI WindBOX III yes yes no yes yes 6 Not included Not included $703

Zotac Zbox yes yes yes yes no 6 1 GB 250 GB $251

Zotac MAG yes (n) yes yes yes no 6 2 GB 160 GB $224

Acer Veriton N yes yes yes yes no 6 2 GB 320 GB $212

SolidLogic Atom JT01 yes yes yes no yes 3 1 GB 160 GB $299

e-Way TQ-40 yes yes yes no no 3 256 MB unknown $155

e-Way TQ Mini no yes yes no no 3 512 MB DDR2 2 GB SD $100

##All-in-one displays

Manufacturer Model Wifi Ethernet External video Touch Screen size (in.) Screen width (px.) Screen height (px.) Notes Price

Sony Dash yes no no yes 7 800 480 Verify that product has browser $129

Shuttle X50V2 Plus yes yes VGA yes 15.6 1366 768 This is the "barebone" version; may not have HDD or RAM $329

Tablets

The universe of tablets is simply too wide to list here, but you can get a decent color tablet starting at $130. Here are the necessary features:

Wifi or ethernet connection Sufficiently large screen Web browser

Another thing to consider is whether you want the transit screen to load automatically whenever the tablet boots. You can add a start-up command that launches the browser to the URL of the display page and have the browser run in kiosk mode.

Keep in mind that tablet screen sizes tend to range from 7 inches to 10.2 inches.