Mickey Segal wrote:
> In contrast the New York Times has done two stories about small Windows XP
> computers that don't come with the Tablet version of Windows XP:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/te...er=rssuserland
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/te...er=rssuserland
>
> This fits with the Original Poster's hypothesis that the market is looking
> for full PC power with pocket mobility, which Tablet PCs could do if there
> were some smaller and less expensive hardware.

But it doesn't mean that folks don't want screens where they can easily
read a full A4/Letter page of information in one go in a portable
device. If the market is looking for one particular device
configuration, it doesn't mean that it's to the exclusion of all other
configurations.

Right. Some folks will want a big tablet, others will want a pocket tablet
that they can dock at their desk. Either market may have trouble getting
going on its own, but the combination may have critical mass.

"Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:422CC7B0.8060504@Nospam.mvps.org...
> But it doesn't mean that folks don't want screens where they can easily
> read a full A4/Letter page of information in one go in a portable device.
> If the market is looking for one particular device configuration, it
> doesn't mean that it's to the exclusion of all other configurations.

Mickey Segal wrote:
> Right. Some folks will want a big tablet, others will want a pocket tablet
> that they can dock at their desk. Either market may have trouble getting
> going on its own, but the combination may have critical mass.
>
> "Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:422CC7B0.8060504@Nospam.mvps.org...
>
>>But it doesn't mean that folks don't want screens where they can easily
>>read a full A4/Letter page of information in one go in a portable device.
>>If the market is looking for one particular device configuration, it
>>doesn't mean that it's to the exclusion of all other configurations.

Microsoft needs to learn how to actually market the product so that it
captures users imaginations. It's been pretty stodgy so far.

And the wrong target market in the first place. 8-)
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:422CE8DD.7000402@Nospam.mvps.org...
> Mickey Segal wrote:
>> Right. Some folks will want a big tablet, others will want a pocket
>> tablet that they can dock at their desk. Either market may have trouble
>> getting going on its own, but the combination may have critical mass.
>>
>> "Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
>> news:422CC7B0.8060504@Nospam.mvps.org...
>>
>>>But it doesn't mean that folks don't want screens where they can easily
>>>read a full A4/Letter page of information in one go in a portable device.
>>>If the market is looking for one particular device configuration, it
>>>doesn't mean that it's to the exclusion of all other configurations.
>
> Microsoft needs to learn how to actually market the product so that it
> captures users imaginations. It's been pretty stodgy so far.

Here is a crazy thought. Microsoft could imitate MoveOn.org, which ran a
contest to produce ads in the recent US presidential election. Here are the
kinds of uses of a Tablet PC that I would show in an ad:
1. Marking up a Microsoft Word document in ink instead of using the Track
Changes annoyance.
2. Using a Web site while walking around holding a Tablet.
3. Having a kid draw or compose music on a Tablet.

"Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:422CE8DD.7000402@Nospam.mvps.org...
> Microsoft needs to learn how to actually market the product so that it
> captures users imaginations. It's been pretty stodgy so far.

And more than that, Mickey. The emphasis has been on developers, with real
little thought to end users and what they're doing with their machines.
There are a lot of case studies on Microsoft's Tablet PC web site, too.

But it is like the appointment I had this morning for a heart stress test.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I ate some chocolate chip cookies last
night - within the 24-hour period for no caffeine (coffee, tea or chocolate)
and the test is postponed until next Monday.

However, the good thing was the doctor noticed my Microsoft-logo Tablet PC
shirt and asked if I worked for the company. I said, no, that I am a Tablet
PC MVP, awarded as a Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft for voluntarily
helping my computing peers. And the doc was off and running with his
interest about adapting a Tablet in his environment of nuclear medicine at
the hospital.

I'm now under "doctor's orders" to bring my Toshiba M200 in next Monday
during the stress test. He wants a little hands-on experience before
ordering one. And I've got a couple programs I'm going to demo to him,
including some nifty EMR things by Tablet PC MVP Fritz Switzer (from
www.abletfactory.com) which interface with OneNote. 8-)
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"Mickey Segal" <not_monitored@example.com> wrote in message
news:ONvCLN3IFHA.3336@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Here is a crazy thought. Microsoft could imitate MoveOn.org, which ran a
> contest to produce ads in the recent US presidential election. Here are
> the kinds of uses of a Tablet PC that I would show in an ad:
> 1. Marking up a Microsoft Word document in ink instead of using the Track
> Changes annoyance.
> 2. Using a Web site while walking around holding a Tablet.
> 3. Having a kid draw or compose music on a Tablet.
>
> "Mike Williams [MVP]" <mikew@Nospam.mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:422CE8DD.7000402@Nospam.mvps.org...
>> Microsoft needs to learn how to actually market the product so that it
>> captures users imaginations. It's been pretty stodgy so far.
>
>

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 06:35:07 -0800, "Chris H." <winxpnews********.com>
wrote:

>Aware? Have you asked your fellow law students? 8-)

I've been considering an informal survey. I'll let you know if it pans
out.

My email address is llm040903 at earthlink dot net.

Chris H. wrote:
> And the wrong target market in the first place. 8-)

Exactly. The person in the street gets passionate about this stuff. They
will drive any new applications to get written. In the meantime they can
be much more effective with driving current Windows apps or using
applications like OneNote.

Tablets are just the best thing for mapping and music-related work.
People who work or play in those areas get goose-bumps when I show them
the simplest things I can do with a Tablet. Unfortunately there's
probably only one Tablet model available for sale in Australia (for
example) and it's not a slate model that is better suited for these.

Of course where you have a subsidiary sales-model where driving Tablet
PCs is one of 15-20 products owned by one person, they're never going to
create mind-share. And telling folks at Microsoft Corp about these
problems is a dead-end that I've butted my head against for a decade:
they just don't get (and in many cases don't *want* to get) what it
means to sell software outside of North America.

I have been looking for a tablet PC for in-cockpit use (light
aircraft) and fairly quickly found the usual selection which everybody
knows about.

None of them were suitable for what I wanted; in most cases either too
flimsy or could not be set up for wifi *and* gprs.

After a while I found that there are loads of ruggedised tablet PCs
which aren't normally advertised; for example the Xplore Technology
ix104 and various others. Most of these are pretty expensive but they
can be found cheap in various places and they tend to be very much
more capable than the normal sort on the comms/networking front e.g.

http://www.peter2000.co.uk/ix104/index.html

The whole market is quite specialised and most vendors know who the
likely customers are, which is why we don't see tablet PCs advertised
on the high street.

I do agree there should be a market for a device which is between
today's best PDAs (e.g. the HP4700 640x480 range) and today's tablets
(say 12" 1024x768 screen). But it won't be with the traditional tablet
customers (warehousing, parcel delivery and such). It may be quite
small but who knows? The sales of 640x480 PDAs are probably miniscule
but that's no suprising because windoze's fixed-pixel-size icons need
a magnifier to be readable on a 4" 640x480 screen ;)


Peter.
--
Return address is invalid to help stop junk mail.
E-mail replies to peter1124@peter2000XY.co.uk but remove the X and the Y.

"me" <me@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4F41E9EC-6FC1-4141-81EF-81867C9B726C@microsoft.com...
> The tablet PC market in the UK is dead. The big retailers like PC World
> here
> don't even sell any tablet PCs.

Well PC World don't sell anything that's decent so that's no surprise. If
they did sell Tablets they'd shove on an extra £1000 mark-up.

I don't think it's dead... It just needs awareness, that'll come in time.
The laptop is the thing that's dead. 8-)

Amazon have the Toshiba M200 for £1303.... Tempting, dropped £200 since the
last time I checked!

--
Paul Smith,
Yeovil, UK.
http://www.dasmirnov.net/
http://windows.dasmirnov.net/ Windows XP Resource Site.

*Replace nospam with smirnov to reply by e-mail*

On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 12:50:48 GMT, Jonathan Sachs wrote:

> Back to the original topic: I get the impression that people are
> saying the tablet platform is "dead," for lack of market support,
> everywhere except the U.S. and Japan.
>
> From my limited perspective, I would say it is very low-visibility (I
> will not say "dead") in the U.S. I have seen zero coverage of it in
> the general press. If you look for articles about tablet PCs in the
> trade press, you can find them; if you just read for general news,
> you'll almost never see them.

Advertising is low key but have been noticing tablets more rather than
less. Am seeing them more often on TV (used by news reporters and as props
in shows). Was surprised a few weeks ago when my doctor walked in with one.
Besides using it to make patient notes, she drew on the tablet to enhance
what she was communicating verbally.

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 01:34:40 GMT, Jonathan Sachs
<llm040903@earthlink.net> wrote:

>On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 06:35:07 -0800, "Chris H." >wrote:
>
>>Aware? Have you asked your fellow law students? 8-)
>
>I've been considering an informal survey. I'll let you know if it pans
>out.

I have conducted the informal survey. I polled two of my fellow
students, two fellow clerks at the law firm where I work, and two
attorneys who were in school recently enough to use laptops (one did,
the other did not).

Results were pretty uniform. All of them either had never heard of the
tablet PC platform, or were vaguely aware of it but did not really
know what it is. When I explained it, none of them exhibited interest
in it as a possible tool for their own work.

Note that all of these people are either studying or practicing patent
law, so as a group they are about as technoid as any attorneys are
going to be at this point.

Meanwhile, I have (after nearly four semesters) finally seen a tablet
PC at school. It belonged to a student who is not in one of my
classes, so I will probably never have a chance to ask him what he
thinks of it.

I also have finally seen a mention of the tablet PC in the general
press. A new model was reviewed in a column in last Sunday's Chicago
Tribune. The reviewer gave it a fairly favorable rating, but he
mentioned handwriting recognition only in passing, so I cannot say
that he really "got it."

My email address is llm040903 at earthlink dot net.

I saw a Microsoft ad on tv but unfortunately not tablet pc (msn search) but I could just imagine if it was mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hi tablet lovers,

my 2 cents from Germany: The situation is quite the same as in the UK.
You can order tablets, but you can't actually look at one anywhere.
Also interest is pretty low (that maybe a classical egg/hen problem,
though ;-) Just take a look at German twin-newsgroup
http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de...ndows.tabletpc
- 30 threads in half a year, 2 so far in March!

Tablets are absurdly expensive. By far the cheapest - Fujitsu-Siemens
T4xxx - clocks in at ~ 1700 Euro (2200$). Acer C1xx and HP's TC1100
are around 2000 Euro! Jeez, 1300 Euro get me a Sonoma 730, 512MB,
40GB, Wlan/BT, CDRW/DVD-Combo Dell Latitude D610 e.g. (~2.3kg in case
you wondered). That makes for one hell of a mark-up for a
touch-sensitive display minus a CD/DVD-bay for most models. On top of
this I just learned HP won't introduce its new TC4200 in Europe.

When I first learned about tablets (in 2003?), I thought instantly:
This is it! But sadly, to this very day tablets remain in Germany an
overpriced, under-supported gadget.

HvZ

The TC4200 won't be in Europe? One of our Tablet PC MVPs, Christopher
James, who is in the UK, has just posted a full review of one of the early
models here: http://81.5.185.34/tc-one-thousand/tc4200-review.html HP's
site (US - English, of course) lists all the information on it here:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/tabletpc/tc4200/ Is there a German web
page saying they won't be selling it there? (Sorry, I don't read German.)
--
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
In memory of a true friend, Windows MVP Alex Nichol

Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP/Tablet PC
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone


"Hendrik van Zeelen" <googro004.5.hvz@spamgourmet.com> wrote in message
news:3cd23b7d.0503160806.3a1614ac@posting.google.c om...
> Hi tablet lovers,
>
> my 2 cents from Germany: The situation is quite the same as in the UK.
> You can order tablets, but you can't actually look at one anywhere.
> Also interest is pretty low (that maybe a classical egg/hen problem,
> though ;-) Just take a look at German twin-newsgroup
> http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de...ndows.tabletpc
> - 30 threads in half a year, 2 so far in March!
>
> Tablets are absurdly expensive. By far the cheapest - Fujitsu-Siemens
> T4xxx - clocks in at ~ 1700 Euro (2200$). Acer C1xx and HP's TC1100
> are around 2000 Euro! Jeez, 1300 Euro get me a Sonoma 730, 512MB,
> 40GB, Wlan/BT, CDRW/DVD-Combo Dell Latitude D610 e.g. (~2.3kg in case
> you wondered). That makes for one hell of a mark-up for a
> touch-sensitive display minus a CD/DVD-bay for most models. On top of
> this I just learned HP won't introduce its new TC4200 in Europe.
>
> When I first learned about tablets (in 2003?), I thought instantly:
> This is it! But sadly, to this very day tablets remain in Germany an
> overpriced, under-supported gadget.
>
> HvZ