Robert responds to Mary Jo’s question: Where will the Tablet PC go tomorrow?
I was thinking about responding to Mary Jo’s points one-by-one, but Scoble’s better at this than I am.
I know Lora’s been kicking herself for not going to WinHec–where several of Mary Jo’s issues seem to have solidified. Many of the Tablet OEMs/ODMs were there and it would have been a great opportunity to get together and share insights on the Tablet. But it also would have been a great opportunity to share her enthusiasm for the Tablet and highlight how enthusiastic developers are for the platform–many of whom she constantly talks with through her efforts with TabletPCPost–with the press. The press, for instance, appears to have missed that several Tablet vendors made the trek to WinHec to showcase their products and support for the Tablet.
The importance of attending conferences, such as WinHec, became evident to me at Demo 2004. Demo was a conference I’d always been interested in attending, but it didn’t happen until Buzz from ActiveWords and Scoble stepped in at the last minute to make sure I’d go. And I’m very glad they did. Everyone was interested in the Tablet PC. I talked with print and TV reporters, investors, entrepreneurs and even some very large potential Tablet customers. Everyone had questions about the Tablet. It was an excellent opportunity to share what I know or at least be able to point people in the right direction to get answers. I also learned a lot about how people viewed Tablet PCs.
So with WinHec behind us, now comes TechEd. I’m checking into going for a day or two, but no solid plans yet. However, today, it seems more important than ever. We need to make it obvious to everyone that Tablets are here to stay–that the Tablet form factor, digitizer and software are as enabling as an LCD projector or CD-RW drive or many of the other innovations over the years.
So anyone going to TechEd? Let’s make sure that Tablets are widely seen.
Will be doing my part in making the Tablet PC known as a versitile platform back home in Malaysia. Already signed up to present a session in our local Tech Ed in Sept.
And then I’ll be able to show Lonestar properly 😉
Ink is just another Notebook feature. This WAS ALWAYS the point, if you can dig up the old white papers and docs during the initial launch (I can’t remember where it was, and no time to google now) It WAS mentioned that once costs (for the digitizers) and technology (less digitizer power comsumption, more battery life) Essentially every notebook can become a Tablet PC, so yes. The point about integrating Tablet features into a notebook is really not new at all.
Just ordered a Motion Computing M1400 explicitly for the purpose of TechEd! Hope I’m not disappointed! 😉
Sleepyhead, tell us what you think once you get your Motion.
I’ve seen the Motion M1400 only briefly, but I was struck by the quality of the display and its excellent viewing angle.
I’d particularly like to hear about your experiences with the built-in mic array.