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October 31, 2002
Here come the Tablet PCs
Prices and features of tablet PC models from Acer, Toshiba and Viewsonic, posted on CompUSA's Web site this week, range from just over $2,000 to $2,500.
I love the idea of a tablet PC (or even a TabletPC) for me, but as a geek buying hardware for a company, I'm not sure who I would buy one for, particularly at $2K plus. I can't see how you sell it as being more valuable than a laptop for the same or less money.
On the other hand, at a price point of $750 or so, even with a slower processor, I think you would see a lot of interest in using them to replace corporate laptops or 2nd and 3rd systems at people's desks.
Also: Q & A on the Tablet PCs, from Pen Computing magazine.
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Comments
So I read thru the Q&A. How is this not a big Newton messagepad? The main difference seems to be that it runs a version of an existing OS, as opposed to a new and unique one. The Newt and the Tablet even share a handwriting recognizer (from Paragraph).
I am surprised it will be based on Intel chips rather than TransMeta Crusoe chips: the big worry seems to be battery life and that's one of the Crusoe's strengths.
Posted by: paul at Nov 1, 2002 12:23:13 AM
Funny thing about tablets: the first thing people look to add is a keyboard.
What is the big challenge to making tablet PCs, anyway? Wacom has produced an LED screen / Wacom tablet for some time. That's the kind of input device you want, right? Laptop - keyboard + Wacom + a few OS tweaks = tablet, no? (Not like me to oversimplify an engineering project, but this doesn't seem like breakthrough tech to me.)
Posted by: john at Nov 1, 2002 5:20:05 PM