Think of all the comments over the years that you’ve heard about why Tablet PCs aren’t good. I bet you can remember lots of them. They probably even got you down at the time, questioning whether Tablet PCs were a good thing after all or not. But you know what? I think if you take a few minutes to reflect back on many of the anti-Tablet comments that have been hurled at your Tablet that today the hurdlers have changed their tune.
I don’t have the links handy, but from memory here are some of the comments I’ve heard or read over the years and more importantly how I think the market sees that same exact same issues today.
* Tablet PCs don’t have enough horsepower. This was a big complaint early on. You know what was so displaced about the criticism? It wasn’t just Tablet PCs that were underpowered, it’s been pretty much true for all notebooks. Intel made a big contribution here with the Centrino platform, but if you ask me Intel hasn’t quite kept up with expectations. Performance, I think this is one of the areas, for instance, where Microsoft miscalculated with Vista. It’s still an issue with notebooks, netbooks, or whatever. As more and more people transitioned from desktops to notebooks, I think more and more people have grown accustomed to typical notebook performance and find it adequate for what they want.
* Tablet PCs don’t have good battery life. This was another criticism that was more about notebooks than just Tablet PCs. Here again, it wasn’t the Tablet PC form factor that was the specific issue. All notebooks took awhile to find a sweet spot here between cell size, power consumption, performance, and battery life. Many people demanded that the need all day battery life–now large numbers of them own notebooks that boast battery life in the three-to-four hour range or so.
* Tablet PCs take too long to boot. This is yet another comment that can be made about all Windows notebooks–it’s jut an issue that became very obvious with Tablet PCs because people were using them different than, guess what, desktops. HP had a QuickStart feature that tried to address this issue as have others, but even with the enhancements in Vista, we’re still waiting for Microsoft to improve this situation for everyone. Apple does a pretty good job here with its standby, but I think we all want faster cold (or cool) boot times.
* Tablet PCs have too small of a screen. This one’s really getting to me now. Early on most Tablet PCs were in the 10″ to 12″ range. Lots of people complained that the screens were too small. You know what? Many of these exact same people are jumping all over the Netbook trend now with 10″ screens and smaller. What’s so unfortunate is that so many of the OEMs believed this criticism and have made Tablet PCs with larger and larger displays increasing their weight and decreasing their mobility. Now the market is trending the other direction.
* Tablet PCs don’t have CD/DVDs built in. Here’s another one of those early adopter features that got way too much criticism that the OEMs and retail stores bought into. Best Buy and CompUSA just couldn’t sell Tablets without these drives. The big problem was really not with the DVD–it was pricing. With the introduction of Apple’s DVD-less Air and the acceptance of Netbooks I hope we see a trend back to lighter, thinner devices, with or without a CD/DVD player.
* Tablet PCs are too heavy. This is another one of those complaints that can apply to most notebooks. People’s expectactions have come into line here, but the OEMs need to get back to the 2 lb magic number if you ask me. The NEC LitePad Tablet PC had it right if you ask me.
* I need a keyboard. Here’s another funny one–especially if you consider the success of the iPhone, which also doesn’t have a physical keyboard. It goes to show you that it’s the implementation that’s the key. Not whether a device has a specific feature or not on a checklist.
Now in rolling back the clock, one thing I remember is that Apple was leading with its notebooks in many respects when Tablet PCs came out. WiFi was easier and more consistent to use on the go if I recall. And sleep functionality was better with Apple notebooks up until Vista SP1 I’d say.
So where are we now in all of this? The debates are still not over. We’re now hearing arguments as to why Tablets and notebooks shouldn’t have touch screens. My take on this? Again, we’re talking platform-specific implementation details rather than flat out thumbs up or down on touch. Devices like the iPhone do multi-touch very well–probably the best for any under $1000 product. I imagine we’ll see some great Tablet touch devices too–though I don’t think we’ve seen the killer implementation yet.
The complaint that “I can’t type faster than I write” is also another one of those valid arguments, although here again it depends on the implementation and features available. In schools, for instance, handwriting makes a lot of sense. And now with Windows 7’s math recognition capabilities, I hope we’ll see even more traction here.
Finally, there’s the age old complatint: Tablet PCs are too expensive. Yes, this has been a consistent problem. UMPCs have suffered from this too. I don’t see this changing any time soon for the classic Tablet form factor, however, I do imagine we’ll see more and more creative devices that boast Tablet and touch features and they will challenge the current pricing models. Fingers crossed anyway.