Hewlett-Packard unveils newest 'data-less' laptop PC

Stories of stolen laptops and credit card information theft come out on a regular basis. It's hard to imagine that sensitive customer data is kept on a laptop computer in many cases, but that's happening every day. Data security is obviously not a top priority for some of these companies that handle massive amounts of customer data.

In many cases, this kind of electronic theft is due to data being kept locally on a laptop's hard drive. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) wagers a newer product may alleviate that risk, as it has introduced a "thin client" laptop PC that has no internal data storage function at all. The new computer is classified as a "connected laptop," and performs all its functions when connected to a server through a wired or wireless network. The data the machine interacts with is somewhere on a remote, secure server -- not on the laptop's insecure hard drive.

These "thin client" machines are not a new concept, but very few portable, real-world laptop PCs have featured a working model that allows full productivity while almost completely eliminating data security issues inherent in any portable data product. Based on HP's recent acquisition of thin client product maker Neoware, the new Compaq model 6720t has no data at all residing on it. If the laptop is stolen or damaged, the data is retrievable, since it sits on a server, not on the machine itself. The laptop would be worthless to thieves.

Although the model does indeed feature a solid-state disk drive, it's designed only to exchange data on a network (wired or wireless). If HP can make inroads into those companies and entities who require portable computing without security risks, it may just create a whole new market for itself that now barely even exists.