A Rugged Tablet, but Not for Consumers

Eric Pfanner/The New York Times

TOKYO - Would you try this with any tablet, be it an Apple iPad, Microsoft Surface or Samsung Galaxy? Dunk a tablet computer into a bucket of water and keep it submerged for half an hour? NEC, the Japanese electronics company, says you could do it with the NEC Shieldpro H11A tablet. It also says you could drop it from a five-foot height onto a concrete floor.

The H11A, one of a range of new products for businesses being shown off by NEC this week at an exhibition here, is what the company describes as a 'ruggedized' device. That means it can withstand abuse that would turn ordinary consumer electronics gadgets into masses of useless plastic, glass and metal.

The tough new tablet is just one of a number of new products and services that reflect a shift underway at NEC and other Japanese technology giants, away from consumers. Some of them are pulling out of ultracompetitive consumer electronics businesses and focusing on more profitable areas. NEC and another Japanese company, Panasonic, recently announced that they were leaving the consumer smartphone business, for example.

The H11A is not aimed at consumers, though NEC says it is not ruling out selling the device to them. Instead, the intended market includes law enforcement and military organizations. One of the first customers is the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, NEC says.

With a burly frame made of a magnesium alloy and with reinforced corners, the H11A weighs more than four pounds - about four times the weight of the iPad Air. Many laptops do not weigh as much. The tablet joins a range of notebooks in NEC's lineup of rugged computers.

Why might the Tokyo police want a waterproof tablet? If you've ever been stuck in one of the city's frequent, torrential downpours, the usefulness becomes more obvious - especially in trying to issue a speeding ticket, for example, or check a suspect's criminal history while exposed to the elements.

NEC is not giving up on consumer businesses entirely. Some new offerings make use of existing technologies, but in different ways.

A service that NEC is showing off this week relies on a new version of a robot that the company had developed all the way back in the 1990s. The device, called PaPeRo Petit, can be used to monitor people's homes while they are away, or help them keep an eye on aging relatives, for example.

PaPeRo Petit has built-in cameras, a microphone and other sensors, and the new service makes use of cloud computing technology.

This being Japan, where cuteness is an important feature of even the most mundane, functional gadgets, PaPeRo has an anthropomorphic design, with two 'eye holes' for the cameras, and a 'head' that rotates and swivels up and down to direct them.

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