Craig Pringle really got a conversation going with his excellent post Now Is The Time For Tablets. Some of the Tablet PC cognoscenti have chimed in with their thoughts including my earlier post. It floated around tech.memeorandum for the better part of two days (a record I think for Tablet PC news on that mashup.) Here’s a sampling:
- Loren Heiny agrees with the theme most are sounding that INK becoming more prevalent is a key, along with exposure, perhaps in retail outlets, perhaps smaller VARs.
- Rob Bushway thinks the question is wrong and the focus should be more on mobile solutions and a range of INKING choices among different form factors.
- Layne Heiny thinks the Year of the Tablet PC hardware was 2005 and others concur.
- Craig has also INKED in with an intriguing post outlining a hardware continuum.
Everyone is hitting a variety of issues that all ring true and are sure to have impact on the future of Tablet PCs…er… Convertible PCs…. er…um… Mobile PCs… Sure, the hardware specs are constantly evolving and newer form factors are eventually (got a UMPC availability date anyone?) going to change the picture. Sure, software is making important strides and still has a ways to go, even post Vista. Sure, battery life needs improvement. Sure, we’re making strides in terms of sales and visibility. Sure, sure, sure, sure.
In my humble opinion, all of those sure things need to be focused around a better marketing and branding effort. Otherwise we’re just dancing around the issue. Come on, how many times have I, and others, written blog entries bemoaning the lackluster, often derisive dismissals of the Tablet PC? My goodness I fear that same old song and dance around the UMPC/Origami. We’ve seen folks wondering what qualifies as an Ultra-Mobile PC? Does the DualCor PC? Does the Motion LS800? Legitimate questions. With better marketing they shouldn’t need to be asked. And yeah, life out here on the bleeding edge can get messy, but there’s a track record here that just doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Rob suggests we get used to the phrase “Tablet as a feature.” On some level I can buy that. James Kendrick’s Ink-Enabled makes more sense. For the life of me, (and I hope I’m wrong here), I keep picturing a bunch of very smart marketing folk feeling very stung by the lackluster sales numbers. I don’t really think they are that lackluster but again, poor marketing has allowed that to become conventional wisdom. The sting is so acute that they are afraid to death to pin anything down for the future. Gates has come out and said that perhaps Microsoft was a bit ahead of the market when they introduced the Tablet PC. (I can’t find that link at the moment so forgive me.) I keep picturing the marketing mavens running as far away from Tablet PC as they can. In fact, now that I think about it, I think they actually had it in the bag and all sewn up with Tablet PC. Let’s see what the possibilities could have been:
- Tablet PC
- Mini-Tablet PC
- Slate Tablet PC
- Convertible Tablet PC
- Ultra-Mobile Tablet PC
- Tablet Phone
- A Tablet PC for your Desktop
- DualCor Tablet PC
We’ve heard and seen the Mobile PC Vision (thanks Rob) and on some level I guess that makes some sense. Honestly I can’t find that level. Can’t you just see the acronyms now? UMPC w/ TAAF? Mobile PC w/ TAAF? Oh, wait, we already have a Mobile this and that, and Ultra-Mobile PC sure has caught on as an acronym now hasn’t it? UMPSIE is a big OOPSIE. And what about something called Windows Mobile? Train wreck waiting to happen.
If two of the keys are the evolution of the hardware and the software to realize the potential of the platform (regardless of form factor) there needs to be something coherent to design and develop for. Are we going to rely on the TIP forever?
I might seem exorcised about this and I’m really not. Craig sparked a conversation that popped some things into focus in my little pea brain. I’ll still be INKING away and enjoying the benefits of a Tablet PC….er… um… convertible pc….er… um…. mobile pc…. er… um…UMPC with Tablet as a feature. There’s some delicious irony and poetic justice out there waiting to happen while we fumble around. Watch Steve Jobs who has proclaimed his disdain for the Tablet PC as much as Gates has proclaimed his belief in the platform, finally decide to get off the dime and release…yep, you guessed it… an Apple Tablet. Call it an Apple Tablet, Tablet Mac, iTablet, what have you, but if it has the name Tablet in it…whoo boy.
