At this weeks Microsoft Strategic Accounts Summit (SAS2007) Bill Gates gave the nod a couple of times to Tablet PCs and ink in his keynote address.
At first he mentioned how pen-based input can be used as an additional mode for user-interaction with a phone (click on the image below to play the video clip):

Then he went on to describe how Tablet technology could one day replace "large and heavy textbooks" and provide a "reading experience that's every bit as good, and yet also have...interaction:"

He sees that cost and size of the devices need to come down as well as improvements in software in order for this to be practical though. He didn't mention when he thought this might be.
It's good to see that Bill Gates remains a strong, public advocate of Tablet and UMPCs.
A complete transcript and on-demand webcast of Bill Gates' speech is available from Microsoft here.


Incremental Blogger