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Tablet PCs on slow dissolve

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 07 Jun 2004 14:35 BST

At that point, though, the rest of the market will have moved on. The confusion between tablet and notebook forms hasn't been helped by the popularity -- relatively speaking -- of convertibles, which are notebooks with pen-sensitive screens that can be used in tablet form. When proper low-power wireless networking for peripherals becomes standard, as it will once UWB or Zigbee companies decide to make money instead of enemies, the confusion will be complete. Is a Tablet PC with a fully detachable wireless keyboard a true tablet? A convertible? A notebook? Does it matter?

When the technology for pen-sensitive screens becomes cheap enough, it will be adopted by everyone -- and why not. At that point, Microsoft will stop maintaining the Tablet PC operating system as a separate brand and just subsume the pen and digital ink stuff into the mainstream OS. It's what it's done in the past: Windows for Workgroups introduced networking as a special, differentiated market, fell flat on its back and was assimilated into the amoeba thereafter.

That'll be tough on all those people who've invested time, energy and money on the promise that the Tablet PC format was really new, unique and different. When the technology is ready to invade new niches, it'll be obvious -- and it won't depend on press releases and sustained bluster. Until that point, the best fate for the ill-starred Tablet PC is to gently dissolve into the world of notebooks. Anything else has proved too hard to swallow.