HP is about to put out a novel 1GHz Celeron laptop it calls a mobile thin client, its first, apparently the result of its acquisition of Neoware.

Wyse, the other remaining thin client maven, beat HP, now the market leader, to the punch a few months ago and added two more models the other day looking much like HP's.

HP's thing, which starts at $725, has no drive or fan or any moving parts at all; it's thoroughly solid-state including the 1GB flash module.

Dubbed the XPe-based Compaq 6720t, it connects to a centralized server (or virtual PC or blade PC for that matter) where all the processing and storage is done, a fact that could do wonders for security and energy efficiency. Imagine life without laptop-with-sensitive-data-gone-missing stories.

Connection is made over a secure VPN Internet link and, as part of HP's desktop virtualization vision, it supports VMware VDI solutions.

It features a 15.4-inch screen along with Wi-Fi-certified WLAN and supports wireless 3G broadband via a PC memory card slot. It has 1GB of memory and three USB 2.0 ports.

Administrators can support the thing remotely. HP imagines them installing, managing, updating and executing applications simultaneously across a fleet of the widgets.

HP has also introduced two more traditional thin clients: a $499 XPe-based Compaq t5730 and a $450 Debian-based t5735.

Meanwhile, Wyse is using a 1.2Ghz Via chip in its new X90l and x90Le mobile thin clients and can leverage Citrix' Presentation Server and XenDesktop, VMware's Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and Microsoft Windows Terminal Server.