"Mike Williams [MVP]" wrote:

> I agree that the mini-Tablet is a good thing and it will surely come.
> I'd like to quickly dock a mini to a larger screen or key-station for
> intense reading.
>
> For the present though, there is a vast audience of laptop/pc users who
> could profit from direct/ink input on a larger screen device. These are
> the professionals and creative types who only occasionally roam from
> their office, not to mention the larger audience of surfers and readers
> who want a home or office-based device. This includes the majority of
> doctors and clinical staff who are not in hospitals doing rounds.

I think most people are mobile to some extent, even if its attending
company meetings or switching between the office and home working.

I don't think its inking that is the best selling point for tablet, I think
its inking plus not having to carry a full size keyboard around with you ie
truely portable tablets

If you look at the portable and tablet market as a whole I think its
segmenting like this
1. "On the go" People who want access to email and calendar on the move -
answer:Blackberry/Smartphone (my guess would be this would be the largest
market say 30-50 Million people). The trends in this market confirm to me
that size is important
2. "Handwriters" People who want to be able to handwrite at their desk - I
think this is a tiny market of mainly geeks and creative types. I'd be
interested if anyone was some statistics for the size of this market. This
seems to be the market microsoft is targetting and its small in my view. (is
this segment really more than say 2-3 Million people?)
3. "Mobile workers". People who need more power than a Blackberry and need
windows applications on the move - sales forces, warehouse staff, doctors,
management consultants, market research people (market research is huge
untapped market for tablet I believe) and poeple who "hot desk".

The third market I believe is untapped currently. Think of the number of
people who had filofaxs, how bulky they where, and what we can do now to get
something far more powerful into their jacket pockets and suitcases/bags