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THE LIGHT STUFF
With tablet computing, Microsoft hopes
to write a new chapter in PC history.
By Scott Liebs
Can the considerable marketing
muscle of Microsoft Corp make of the old something new? "Tablet"
PCs have been around for years, as anyone who has ever signed
for a UPS package knows. But Microsoft believes that its new
operating system - and a strong commitment to the devices
from a sizeable range of major technology companies - can
transform a niche product into a corporate must-have.
Microsoft is being careful to sell its
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and, by extension, tablet PCs
in general, as logical extensions of a knowledge worker's
arsenal. At the November 2002 debut, Microsoft shared the
stage with dozens of technology partners and corporate customers
that were eager to explain why tablet PCs are perfect for
meetings, sales calls, field visits, or any other on-the-run
experience. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates went so far as to
predict that within five years tablet PCs will outsell notebook
and even desktop PCs.
The key difference between these new machines
and ever-shrinking notebook computers is that tablet PCs,
which can weigh less than three pounds, are designed to be
useful even when optional keyboards are left behind, thanks
to a pen-based interface that captures handwritten notes and
provides the point-and-press experience of a PDA. And unlike
earlier models, the newest generation is designed to do everything
a conventional PC does, and then some.
That's where Microsoft comes in. Its tablet
operating system, which won top honors at the recent Comdex
trade show, not only brings standard desktop functionality
to tablets, but also adds features, including "digital
ink," a method of capturing and preserving handwritten
notes. In emphasizing the system's ability to store handwriting
as its own data type, versus translating it into conventional
text as the Apple Newton and other devices have tried (and
largely failed) to do, Microsoft is placing a sizable bet
that customers will find this approach useful. The company
argues that productivity will be enhanced: instead of bringing
a legal pad to a meeting and scrawling notes, you scrawl them
on your tablet PC. When you need them again you know where
to find them (the system includes a search function), and
you can e-mail them as handwritten notes.
Tablet PCs will convert handwriting to
text, but Microsoft is talking up the idea of electronic ink
as a replacement for paper, reminding people about all the
annotating and editing and even doodling that they do, and
suggesting that on a tablet PC these activities get the technological
underpinning they've always needed.
Microsoft doesn't stop there, though.
It has marshaled more than two dozen other software companies,
from SAP AG to Franklin Covey Co, to modify their products
for tablets. And it has worked closely with customers in many
industries to understand just what tablet PCs are good at.
At Bechtel National Inc, a team responsible for contract management
used tablets to capture the necessary signatures, merge documents,
and e-mail them to appropriate parties, a job that used to
require the printing and faxing or scanning of hard-copy documents.
Contracts manager David Methot says the pilot test was promising,
and thinks the "grab-and-go" capabilities are well
suited to an increasingly mobile workforce.
Keyboard Optional
Tablet PCs currently come in two basic
varieties: dockable or convertible units that can play a role
on the desktop (thanks to built-in keyboards) but then accompany
a user whenever he or she leaves the office (hence grab-and-go),
and "slates," which forgo keyboards (although attaching
one may be an option) and serve as electronic notepads and
web/e-mail access devices.
Analysts see a future for tablet PCs as
viable replacements for current notebooks: since they can
do everything notebooks can and offer additional features,
then if the price is right, why not? (Toshiba Corp's Portégé
line, another Comdex prizewinner, retails for US$2,299-2,499.)
The real questions are, will customers
like them well enough to jump before current notebooks reach
the end of their life cycles, and, far more important, will
grab-and-go models become the de facto desktop machines for
mainstream corporate use?
Plenty of ink, electronic and otherwise,
will be lavished on speculation and on chronicling Microsoft's
continuing efforts to make this newest version of its Windows
operating system the grab-and-go standard.
Alix Nyberg is a staff writer for
CFO in the US, CFO Asia's sister publication
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