All kinds of excitement is coming down from Microsoft and their partners regarding Windows 7 since the announcement of the October 22nd release date. We are running a number of different tablets on W7 at the office and enjoying the heck out of it.
If you haven't been following the discussion, check out the Windows Team Blog. Information on pricing and upgrading was released today and the news is good - free upgrades for new PCs purchased starting today and also $99.99 upgrades to Windows 7 Pro for owners of similar versions of XP and Vista.
I read on GottaBeMobile that HP will offer the free upgrade path on their computers and today I received an email from Fujitsu stating the same. Come on Motion, step up and be next!
Not to pick on Tim Bajarin of PC Magazine but when his article popped up in my Google Alerts, a familiar feeling of annoyance came over me. The article, similar to many I have read over the years, laments that tablet PCs aren’t “mainstream” and wonders what it will take to have broad consumer appeal.
These same sentiments have been effused by countless pundits, wags and analysts. And they make me crazy.
Do me a favor. Look out the window of you office or home. Can you see any two vehicles of the same make, model and color? Of course not. Everyone had different needs. The biggest problem when trying to lump Tablet PCs in with mobile computers is the definition of mobile. The majority of “mobile” users are taking their computer from home to work or from room to room. For that group, a laptop is the perfect device which is why notebook computers are outselling desktop PCs and their market share continues to grow. Tablet PCs serve mobile workers who are “walking around computing”. This is a much smaller segment of the market but for these people, a laptop isn’t a good choice.
If you need to get to the grocery store, any vehicle with four wheels and an engine will get you there. On the other hand, if you want to transport six landscapers, their mowing equipment and a trailer full of material, you better look at something like the Ford E450 Super Duty. You don’t want to try and do that job with a Toyota Camry. People who write about tech gadgets always want the same thing: a 1 pound device with Quad Core processor, two Terabytes of storage and 25 hours battery life for a sub-$200 price. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating…maybe not. Like the E450, a tablet isn’t for everyone, but if you have a specific job to do that involves accessing your files, taking notes, filling out forms and recording data then it is the right device. And a CrunchPad with an Atom processor and Linux, or a UMPC with 7” display and small battery, or a vaporware “media pad” isn’t going to do the job. Tablet users have mortgages to pay and businesses to run. They want a Windows device with certain basic features that will let them run their applications.
Tim says what other have said similarly, that “it still seems like a pipe dream when it comes to market acceptance”. That misses the point. The business person that is judging swing dance contests, building high-rise apartments, fixing the plumbing, appraising a house, recording tags from cows, noting vital signs of a trauma patient, taking notes about a building’s crumbling façade or any other job where they are making money by working in the field is the market for tablets.
Tim almost had it when he said of his own use:
“I've used a 12-inch tablet around my house for the last five years, and I actually like the utilitarian nature of the product.”
Tech isn’t always sexy, most of the time it is utilitarian – but it pays the bills. J
(Do you have a utilitarian, yet profitable, use for your tablet PC? Let me know about it.)
Why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector is Better Than a Whiteboard or Overhead Projector BY JIM VANIDES
I don't need to erase to keep going - With a whiteboard, when it fills up, out comes the eraser. If you're a student who is not a fast note taker, game over. Infinite digital space is so much nicer, because you don't interrupt the train of thought.
I can go BACKWARD and answer dangling questions - This example came from a high school geometry teacher in Georgia who uses the infinite pad of digital "paper" in MS Journal to present from. She used to use an overhead projector with a somewhat infinite roll of acetate. She explained that because her presentation annotations were easily accessible, she had a student (for the first time ever) ask her to go BACK 3 pages to where she was five minutes ago. Students don't stop thinking after you erase your whiteboard!
I can archive and share my presentation after class - Many teachers report that they create a "master file" of their lesson plans, and present from a copy so they can annotate and save it for post-class distribution. This has an interesting effect of changing student note-taking - they start to shift from "transcribers" to "thinkers".
I can easily incorporate rich media into my classroom - Why limit our teaching to words scrawled on a whiteboard? Back in the day, videos (or even farther back in the dark ages with movies and film strips!) were run on a separate system requiring more equipment, more hassle, and sometimes a "film monitor" (am I dating myself?). Today, with a tablet pc and an internet connection, we can bring video, audio, web-content, even live polling and videoconferencing with guest speakers, into our classrooms to support presentations - and more importantly - the discussions and questions that follow.
I can more easily overlay annotations on images - This is nearly impossible on a whiteboard, and only possible-but-a-hassle on an overhead projector. Heaven forbid you should want to ERASE an annotation to make another point. What a mess!
I have a million colors at my fingertips - not ON my fingertips. I don't miss the days of chalk (three colors, if you can find them) and erasable pens (a packet of 6 colors, if you were really hip)
TabletPCBuzz - The Best Place to Learn about Tablet PCs
