Tablet PCs at the threshold

The concept of a pen-based microcomputer is over 30 years old. Time and again, there have been attempts at creating a portable touchscreen device that could be manipulated through handwriting. Many of these attempts were failures simply because the software and hardware then were not refined enough to make the concept a viable one.

Companies like Xerox, IBM and Apple had early yet unsuccessful forays into the tablet PC arena and produced models which, while promising, were simply too ambitious given the limited scope of portable technology then.

A lot of the research and development for tablet PCs such as handwriting recognition did prove beneficial to the creation of handheld computers. Through the years, battery technology, better VGA screens, shrinking hard drive sizes and increased capacities as well as interconnectivity protocols have surfaced in the mainstream. These technologies are now readily available and many have been in use for sometime now.

With the advent of wireless connectivity, GPRS integration, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the tablet PC seems to be a viable option for lightweight and connected yet high-performance mobile computing.

A new niche

Computer makers believe that there is a market between the notebook PC and the handheld or Palm PC space that should be attributed to tablet PCs. Target markets for these devices could be the business and education sectors as well as any industry that would require rapid deployment of sub-portable, keyboard-free computers that are bigger and have larger capacity than PDAs and palmtops.

Microsoft’s recent release of Windows XP Tablet PC edition has reinforced this notion with a number of first-generation tablet PCs currently being made available.

One typical form factor for a tablet PC is that of a notebook or a sub-portable with a detachable screen that actually houses the processor and the CPU. Convertible tablets, as these models are called, can also rotate their screens 180 degrees while connected to their keyboards. Convertible tablet PCs can also be reversed and folded back on the keyboards with the display facing out.

The other popular form factor, which software giant Microsoft seems more inclined to, is the slate design. Essentially, tablet PCs are standalone machines that do not have integrated keyboards but rely heavily on handwriting recognition software. These particular models are ideal for surfing the Internet and for e-mail as well as for basic information input.

The first generation

Top PC manufacturers have already announced their tablet PCs, a lot of them stylish and sleek with numerous notebook-like features. Early reviews indicate that these first-generation devices suffer from glitches and are somewhat unwieldy. Yet, credit these reactions to the fact that they are the first generation of their kind and are comparable to nothing else. Palm computers and early Pocket PC devices faced similar apprehensions, and they had glitches too. It took three product generations to get them somewhat right.

One of the shining stars of the pioneer batch of tablet PCs is HP-Compaq’s TC1000T which has a slate design and is extremely small with a 10.4-inch monitor that comes together with a snap-on keyboard and docking station, has a three—hour battery and runs on an ample 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe. This model is priced under $2,000. Makers like Fujitsu, Acer, Motion Computing and Viewsonic are hoping that users will be attracted to their tablet PCs whose prices range from $1,650 to $2,500.

It should be interesting to see how the market accept the tablet PC as a niche product and as an alternative to exceedingly popular notebook computers. Microsoft is hoping that its Windows XP-like ease of use and familiar interface logic would be a factor in creating a new market of users.

But as with most new things, both the software and the hardware still have years of revisions and refinements to go before the tablet PC platform can expect to compete with the highly popular and matured PDAs and notebooks.