Microsoft Reviving the Tablet PC? Maybe Apple IS Working On One
TechFlash has a reliable source that says that Microsoft is may be working on a project that is “reviving the Tablet PC.” As a big fan of the Tablet, this is exciting to me on a number of levels. While this is just a rumor, it could easily happen, although there is no question that Microsoft let the Tablet PC languish to the point that it needs reviving. If Microsoft is indeed planning something to revive interest in the Tablet platform, it may be the strongest indicator yet that Apple is working on a consumer Tablet.
The Tablet PC is one of those products that should be more popular than it is simply because of the utility the form provides. The reason the Tablet never took off in the first place was largely because of the insistence that they be regular computers that could also do inking. This caused the evolution of the slate Tablet to be directed to the convertible laptop form, which negated much of the advantages a slate brings to the table. Convertible notebooks are too expensive and too heavy/bulky to be Tablets that appeal to the consumer.
The rumors that Apple is working on a consumer Tablet just won’t die, and if Microsoft is seriously trying to revive the Tablet PC, it might lend credence to those iTablet rumors. Apple knows how to play in the consumer space as well as anyone, and a large iPod-like Tablet would be a ground-breaking device. Microsoft would be left with a lot of egg on its face if Apple were able to bring out a successful consumer Tablet, given that the folks in Redmond invented the genre.
Someone should build a touch screen Netbook tablet, e.g. with a form factor like the Lenovo X61, but priced under say $500, and every student in America would buy/use one.
Next step would be to put Kindle reader software on it…and then you would have a solution that every adult would buy too…
I think mostly the problem was that neither microsoft nor the hardware companies could figure out how to sell it to the average consumer, instead landing it in vertical markets like healthcare…
Now that PMP’s are becoming more and more common, cheaper and more power efficient cpus are available, and most important of all, internet access anywhere is becoming as available as it have ever been, and cheaper by the day, it can be the perfect storm for such a product.
Still, i suspect that microsoft may have gotten more consumers interested, if they had not fumbled the smart display as badly as they did…
Did I miss something? When did MS lose interest in tablets? One of the few things that considerably improved with Vista and Office 2007 was inking and 7 and 2010 continue that trend. The rest is up to the hardware companies.
Microsoft started the Origami/ UMPC thing and have already dropped it. That was the first real consumer-oriented Tablet idea they pushed but lost interest in it quickly.
Hopefully they, e.g. the Tablet guys in Windows read your blog, as it is a great idea to keep it moving forward. I haven’t seen the touch screen machines from either Dell or HP, but the idea that you could write with your finger would be fun!
I’m not a tablet user, but I am curious as to what is “missing” in Microsoft’s tablet support? I played with it a little with a Wacom tablet and didn’t like it, but mostly because positioning things on the tablet was difficult.
The intriguing question is if Apple came out with a Tablet Mac, how long would it take Dell, HP, etc. to ape it?
Peter:
Both Dell and HP have tablets. I like the HP one better, but both are excellent quality.
When you say “positioning things” not sure what you meant?
Buzz
I so, so wanted a tablet PC and in 2008 purchased a used one via Ebay. Figured it would be a great mobile platform, good for general surfing, watching videos, etc. After using it extensively for a few months, put it back up for sale on Ebay. Lets just call it a $200 hard learned lesson.
The current MSoft tablets may be fine for vertical markets but they don’t cut it in the consumer sector. The handwriting recognition has 3 modes, ranging from reading continuous script (least accurate), to entering one character at a time, slow, or pressing letters on a keyboard image, very slow. The net result, it was just easier to flip the thing open and use the keyboard. Thumb typing, with two hands, like on an ipod or RIM device, is impossible as you only get to use the special stylus. Entering a URL or entering an intelligent message via the stylus was near impossible or so slow as to be painful.
The screen has a touch sensitive layer on top of the lcd resulting in a slight dulling/blurring of the image. Not terrible, but certainly not crisp like a “normal” lcd.
I’m still hoping for a 11-13″ tablet that will be ergonomic for the consumer. The stylus is not a great of doing input, but the problem is that as the screen size gets too large, the sides of your hand end of resting on the screen. This makes the capacitive touch screens, like iphone, tough to use.
The
WHat model did you try? I can assure you there is a huge variety of tablets all with good and bad points. The newer ones are wonderful capable devices. Your experience, while not uncommon is usually a result of poor implementation by the manufacturer, not the platform itself, or the use of an early model where the platform had not developed. Also the Tablet OS has improved vastly since XPSP1. SP2, Vista and now 7, all give enormous improvements in the tablet experience.
Gordon
After trying different set ups — see see my list of tablets below.I have ended up with one regular laptop (for writing) and one slate for paper marking up and internet browsing when sitting not at a table. I’d rather see more work on a slate -lighter smaller etc. Easier to hold and write on for longer periods.
As Bart once tried to write “Beat up Marvin” and was translated to: “Eat Martha.”
I use a tablet PC a lot, but seldom in tablet mode. Normally I just use it as a regular portable.
Over the last few years I’ve done a lot of transcribing of archive documents (letters, memos, scripts) held in libraries. I couldn’t photocopy them, but I need a transcript of them. Being only a slow typist, I thought a tablet would be my salvation. I thought I could write the material straight into the computer.
The problem with this was that the handwriting recognition wasn’t up to it, although certainly better in Vista. I spent so much time correcting the conversions that it would probably just have been just as quick (or slow) to type it. In the end the working pattern was to handwrite straight into Windows Journal, and defer the conversion to text until I was back home. This was not a bad way to work, but the recognition still needs to be better. (Windows Journal, incidentally, was much better for this than OneNote.)
The conclusion I came to was that the tablet was really designed for note taking in business meetings, rather than for heavy-duty writing. That would make sense because the market for business users must be huge, whereas the market for archival researchers and others who need to work in handwriting is negligible.
I’m looking forward to the improvements Windows 7 is supposed to bring.
I think the slate is definitely due a comeback, I have been using the multi-touch keyboard on win7 on my Dell XT with the latest drivers. It is a fantastically usable keyboard and feels much more like a regular keyboard, no more hunt and peck with a pen. (as long as it is big enough on screen)
I really want HP to do a new TC1100 with multi touch, edge to edge, high dpi screen and slightly thinner – perfect.
Oh, did “the folks in Redmond invent the genre” before Apple marketed the Newton? Strikes me the Newton was the first true Tablet PC.
As innovative as the Newton was, and I owned two of them, to me they were super-PDAs, not the full-blown computers that the Tablet PC is. Microsoft had Pen Windows on products prior to the Newton too.
How about the old tablet from Go? The point is that Microsoft was about the third player on the scene. Everybody else disappeared because it wasn’t profitable, but Microsoft sometimes keeps a line going even when it’s not profitable. After all the other competitors are gone, they can count on people with short memories to start crediting them with an act of creation they haven’t earned.
And what precisely does “super-pda” mean, when the whole concept was coined by the Newton? The Newton was a computer, with a programming environment and everything.
All it really seems it that you don’t grant something the status of a “computer” unless you can also see that OS running on a traditional “computer” form, like a laptop or desktop. Thus MS scores. They wrenched Windows into a form-factor is was ill-suited for. The experience is poor, and the handwriting recognition is still so bad no one uses it in general practice, unlike the Newton. This is part of the reason the tablet has failed, I think. We only THINK we want something new. But we’re afraid of “new”. We want something old dressed up as something new. And then we get it, and we discover THAT kind of process involves losing more features than you gain… and the few people who’ve found a use for the devices bemoan it’s lack of traction in the market.
The main thing MS could have done to have helped its tablet would have been to improve the handwriting recognition to the point it was useful. I remember writing on drawing on the Newton 2100 (or was it 2000, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten). The recognition was outstanding, I could switch between cursive and print, and then I could draw a circle and –bang– I got a nice, clean circle. Bring me that experience on a tablet. Such an experience is, I think, necessary but not sufficient for the success of a tablet. There are more things that would have to come into line, but that’s one of them. Otherwise it’s like buying a PC with a mouse and no keyboard. There’s things you can still go, and you’ll like the extra desk space… but the novelty with go away, and you’ll start noticing all the things that are now harder, too.
I disagree with the article about the convertible form: as time progresses smaller computers should take on more of the functions of regular computers, not less.
If 7 years ago, when processors were 90nm (?), tablets were full computers, so much more should they be now when processors have moved to 65nm, 45nm and now 32nm and similarly for other components. Everthing can become more compact and SSDs move in this direction too. And Windows 7 being an undemanding OS is another reason.
So tablets should definitely have the power of full computers; and why not give them a keyboard too?
James – IMHO – your desire for the tablet pc changed more because you do not have the same job than form factor changes. The HP 2730p would be everything a TC1100 lover liked and more. It is roughly the same size/weight as the TC1100 – but way more functional in keyboard input mode and still works beautifully as a tablet.
-d
When tablets first came out, I was running an IT Department, and we bought about a half dozen of the first generation tablets to test. While they were used as laptops for a while by some of our executives, our overall experience with them was very poor. Handwriting recognition was terrible, the screens broke at the hinges. Of our original users only one really liked it.
About a year ago I got a three year old Motion slate used, and I loved it. The 2005 update to the Tablet software was a big improvement. Now I am using Vista on an HP 2730, and it is an excellent laptop as well as tablet. On a Tablet Vista is a huge improvement. The active touch screen is multiple times better than the early generation screens. I want all my laptops to have tablet capabilites, and I would love a simple stripped down 10″ slate for reading, web browsing and playing casual games. I bought a used TC 1100 for that, but it is a bit heavy and a little buggy with Vista.
The tablet form factor and the laptop form factor really ought to merge.
“The tablet form factor and the laptop form factor really ought to merge.”
Not going to happen as long as the companies think they can but a premium on a hinge and a touch screen…
That’s already happened with the convertible notebook. Hasn’t made a difference for the tablet growth though.
Outside of vertical markets, a tablet (or convertible tablet) has to be portable to be useful. No tablet should weigh more than three pounds. I use a Lenovo x60T, and love it, but at around 4.5 pounds with the extended battery, it is a pain to carry around and is very tiring to hold in my hand for reading or inking for any length of time.
The viliv would be a great form-factor for a portable tablet, but it sadly lacks the ability to ink well, at least according to what I read on this site. I hope they produce an updated version which takes this into account.
Handwriting-recognition is still not up to my handwriting, but I just store my notes as “ink”–just like I did for the paper notes the tablet replaces. No problem there.
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Make it with Mac OS X inside, 300 g weight, video out port for Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations on videoprojector, as small and pocketable as possible (not to work on its touch and small screen), and here is an order of thousands for our University.