Tablet PCs
All stylus, no substance?Dan Tynan and Yardena Arar
Yardena Arar is a PC World senior editor.
Like the late Rodney Dangerfield, tablet PCs have gotten no respect. Introduced in November 2002, tablets are notebooks with a twist: Instead of merely typing, you can write directly on the screen using a plastic stylus. Tablets run a special version of Windows that can capture your handwriting and convert it to editable type.
Some tablets feature a slate-like touch screen that can detach from the main CPU, making it easier to use while standing or working on an airplane tray table. Other tablets are convertible, so you can write on the screen as if it were a slate or swivel it around for use as a traditional notebook screen.
Unfortunately, the first tablets had small, 10- or 12-inch screens and were pricier than similarly equipped notebooks, limiting their appeal to certain professionals, such as utility, healthcare, education, and sales workers. Since mid-2004, however, more mainstream business users and consumers have been snapping them up, says IDC analyst Alan Promisel.
The reason? Chalk it up to price drops and the introduction of more 14-inch convertible tablets, such as Gateway's M275 series and Acer's TravelMate C300 line.
"Instead of focusing on the Tablet PC operating system as the core aspect of the machine, it's just another feature," says Promisel. In other words, a tablet PC is just a notebook system that you can set up to write on its screen--if you choose to do so.
Touch-screen capabilities may become a standard feature of all notebooks, especially when Microsoft releases its next-generation operating system, code-named Longhorn, in 2007.
In the meantime, at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show last month, Microsoft took the wraps off Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, previously code-named Lonestar. PC World saw a pre-release version of Lonestar and was impressed by the improvements Micrsoft made in tablet PC usability, most notably to its Text Input Panel, which pops open when you want to use the stylus to enter text. In some applications under Tablet PC 2005, the TIP pops up near the place where you want to enter text, instead of being docked permanently at the bottom of the screen as in the original operating system. It also permits on-the-fly corrections, which makes converting handwriting to text less frustrating than in the original OS.
Tweaks like this and new innovations in the actual tablet PC form factor are signs the systems are growing up. As users grow more comfortable with them, tablet features may become standard on notebooks.