Beyond the Tablet PC

By David Em

June 16, 2003

(Beyond the Tablet PC :  Page 1 of 1 )

The "Whoa, cool!" factor for tablet computers is high, but I see no evidence they're flying off the shelves. Whip one out in a crowd, and you'll certainly get attention, kind of like walking into a room with a digital camera three years ago. But getting people to actually shell out cash for one appears to be a tough sell.

Most people using tablets today are the same folks who've been using them for years, such as medical, insurance, and law enforcement professionals who need to fill out forms on the go. I saw not a single tablet at the recent PMA photography conference, whose audience should theoretically fit the early-adopter profile for this kind of device. Obviously something's wrong with this picture.

I've poked at several pen-enabled devices over the past few months, and I'm surprised to report that my two favorite tablets aren't really tablets at all, at least officially. One is Fujitsu's superb LifeBook P1000 ultralight clamshell, and the other is Handspring's Treo 300 phone/PDA/e-mail messager. Although not marketed as such, each is really a tablet that outperforms every "official" tablet currently on the market in terms of true functionality. I'll get to them in a minute.

What's Missing

To eventually succeed in the mass market, tablet computers must excel in three key areas: interface, weight, and battery life. Let's look at interface first. The biggest single factor that differentiates tablets from regular portables is that the primary interface is a touch-sensitive screen instead of keyboard and mushpad.

I'm a huge fan of touch-sensitive screens. I'd be very happy if all screens were designed that way. Unfortunately, the touch-screens on most tablets on the market only respond to a specific pen (usually a Wacom), which if you lose, it's too bad for you, because your tablet becomes instantly useless till you shell out fifty bucks for a new one.

Annotating and sketching on documents and filling out forms with a pen is all very nice, but there's no way I'm going on the road without a keyboard.

 Page 1 of 1