Toshiba to Bundle OneNote 2003 on All Notebooks

   Late yesterday, Microsoft and Toshiba announced that Toshiba will bundle Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 with all its notebook products worldwide beginning October 21, when Microsoft launches the Microsoft Office System. OneNote 2003 is a new Microsoft Office System application designed to complement the ways that users make, catalog, search, and organize notes on notebook, desktop, and Tablet PCs. OneNote 2003 lets users type, audio record, and--with a Tablet PC--handwrite notes. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates first announced OneNote 2003, which began life as a project called Scribbler, at the COMDEX Fall 2002 trade show in Las Vegas. Although OneNote 2003 is part of the Microsoft Office System, the application will be available only as a standalone purchase.
   "We feel OneNote will add tremendous value to our mobile PCs as tools for collecting and managing information," said Atsutoshi Nishida, Toshiba's director and corporate executive vice president. "For that reason, we've taken the rare step of including one specific application in all of our portables worldwide. Our mutual customers will be the real beneficiaries of our collaboration to bring digital note-taking capabilities to the notebook and Tablet PC experience."
   Predictably, Microsoft expressed delight with the bundling plan. "As a recognized leader in the portable PC market, [Toshiba] is in a unique position to deliver OneNote to the mobile user," said Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Productivity and Business Services. "We see OneNote as an integral part of the Microsoft Office System--almost indispensable among mobile workers, students, and anyone else who takes notes. By preinstalling OneNote on its laptops and Tablet PCs, Toshiba recognizes this value and, out of the box, provides PC users with a portable machine that is powerful and productive."