Fieldworks is a company based out of Minnesota that develops rugged mobile computers. Their products are built on MIL-STD 810 standards for operation in harsh environmental conditions, such as temperature (5° F to 122° F), shock (100 G), humidity, and shock.
I had the personal experience of selling these high-end and quite heavy machines at one time in my life. For the longest time, I totally believed in the specs and sold quite a few of the units based on that.
This dedication to the product came crashing down completely one day when I went to sell it to a security unit at a multi-national telecom manufacturer. They were looking to replace the PowerBooks that they had been using and abusing in their vehicles with something more rugged. I went through my usual sales routine and focused on the specs...until the customer stopped me and asked about the shock figure.
"So you say that this laptop will take quite the beating?" he asked.
"Absolutely. 100 Gs worth of force, to be precise. You could drive your car over this thing and it'll still run." I replied.
"Okay, let's see you drop it on this hard floor.
So I did. I then picked it up, pressed the power button....and the damned thing wouldn't boot up. I started getting nervous and that's when I told the customer...
"This is an older demo unit. It's taken quite the beating over the last few months and I may have just shaken something loose inside. I'll take it back to the office, see what's wrong, and come back another day to finish this demo up."
So I did. The week after, I came back to the customer and the first thing I did was drop it in front of him again. I then picked it up, opened the screen...and found that the screen was completely shattered!
I packed up the unit, shook the customer's hand, and said "Thanks for your time. Have a nice day!"
I quit the next day.