“Microsoft faces a tough competitor, the dominant player in the business-meeting note-taking market. It’s a rugged, crashproof portable that accommodates any writing implement, feels just like paper and costs .02 percent of a Tablet PC. If it’s prestige you’re after, you can even tell your friends that it has a fancy name: Windows XP Legal Pad Edition.” – New York Times, Nov. 7.
The TeleRead take: Times columnist David Pogue correctly writes up Tablet PCs as too expensive for the extras they offer (at least for the typical user). It’ll be interesting to see who is right–Pogue or Microsoft. This is of interest to e-book advocates for the obvious reason. A successful Tablet PC could boost demand for e-books, especially those in the Open eBook format.
I suspect that Pogue and other skeptics will be right until Tablet PC prices decline dramatically–a process that a TeleRead-style approach could accelerate by using libraries to introduce the public to e-books and other tablet-related apps. Perhaps customers in niche markets–for example, lawyers, the legal pad people–will tide the tablet design over for the moment.
Meanwhile you can pick up details not only from the Microsoft Tablet PC area but also from the Tablet PC Talk blog and an accompanying FAQ.
