Australia could have been the world leader in laptop computers — if we didn’t have a brain-dead financial sector.
Hannah Francis’ article last week about the Vixtel Unity — a new Australian-designed multi-function Tablet/Laptop/Phone (The three-in-one Aussie device that could kill the PC) — seriously stopped me in my tracks when I saw that its developer was Terry Crews. For that reason alone, I popped over to the Indiegogo site where Vixtel is running a crowd-funding campaign and chipped in $645 towards its $100,000 goal — for which I’ll receive one of the first production run tablets that will be available in July (about 4 to 6 weeks from now).
Why did I do that? Because Terry was the brains behind easily the most innovative computer product ever to come out of Australia: the Dulmont Magnum (see Figure 1). This was a genuine laptop computer, the very first in the world, whose design pre-dated the IBM PC. Any new product Terry Crews is involved in is bound to leap well ahead of the competition, because that was his track record with the Dulmont Magnum itself. This product was so far ahead of the global competition that comparisons are simply laughable.
Figure 1: The Dulmont Magnum — my own which I purchased back in 1984
