Tablet PCs invade the market

With laptop
penetration in India maturing, there is a new gizmo on the block--Tablet PC.
Hailed as the latest IT pill, this gizmo is aimed at tapping the corporate,
field users and educational institutes. Tablet PC is a mix bag of an awkward
technology stage and it explains why all sorts of companies over the past decade
have tried--and failed--to make and market a tablet PC, a cross between a laptop
and a piece of paper. The latest in offer is Microsoft and partners including
HP, Toshiba and Acer.

There were six
Tablet PCs unveiled recently in the US.

The defining
feature of a Tablet PC is that one can write on it like paper. It has a
touch-sensitive screen and a pen-like stylus. What is written can be saved,
manipulated and sent around just like something that was typed. One could take a
Tablet PC to a meeting and write on it. You could be holidaying and editing a
letter. To be clear, these PCs are not Palm handhelds or Pocket PC computers.

The Tablet PC
software can do some interesting things. Users can write notes on it and the
software will recognize the words and keep track of them in digital format.
Later, one can create copies, search for it and edit it just like any other
digital file. The handwriting recognition software is supposed to be the best
yet, with an accuracy rate of 60 to 70 percent.

Acer TravelMate C102TI	Toshiba Protégé 3505	Compaq Tablet PC TC1000
800 MHz PIII-M processor 256 MB RAM 30 GB HDD 10.4-inch display A pair of USB outlets Modem, LAN, FireWire and external monitor ports Type II PC Card slot An external USB CD-ROM  Windows XP Tablet Edition OS Price: Rs 1.49 lakh	1.3 GHz PIII-M processor 512 MB RAM  40 GB hard drive  12.1-inch XGA screen Trident CyberAlladdin-T graphics accelerator Connections for audio, external monitor, a LAN and modem USB 2.0 ports PC Card slot Price: Rs 2.25 lakh (approx)	Transmeta Crusoe TM5800  1.0-GHz processor  256 MB SDRAM 60 GB SMART hard drives  10.4-inch TFT  NVIDIA GeForce2 Go 100  high-resolution graphics Built-in 802.11b wireless LAN capabilities USB 2.0 connectivity Price: Rs 1.6 lakh

Talking about
this new product, PK Roy, Group Editor, Dataquest Group of Magazines, was
puzzled about the positioning of the Tablet PCs. "These manufacturers can
take one of two roads to Tablet PC potential. One is to expand on the
always-at-move information worker who roams but needs access to the applications
and data usually found on the desktop.

The other is to
tap into specific vertical markets --sales, law, medicine--where a large
population of on-the-foot work a big part of the day away from the desk."

Tablet PCs have
two formats: the `convertible' model with an integrated keyboard and a display
that rotates 180 degrees and can be folded down over the keyboard, and the
`slate' style with a removable keyboard.

In the slate
format, there is an application that allows users to input information by
writing or drawing with a stylus directly on the screen, just like jotting down
notes. Write on the display and the text appears. Click on the eraser icon,
swipe, and text disappears. These notes can be sent by e-mail. The same stylus
used to enter text is also a control center when the Tablet PC is undocked from
its keyboard. Commands can be executed by tapping on program menus with the
stylus. Some models also provide stylus-controlled replacements for the
frequently used function keys with small recessed buttons on the front of the
case. When pressed with the tip of the stylus, the buttons can launch the
Journal application, quit any application, restart the computer or open the
Windows Menu. The Tablet PC operating system is a modified version of
Microsoft's Windows XP that has been altered for users to operate their machines
with a stylus instead of a mouse and keyboard.

Shweta Khanna

What resellers say about this gizmo

Ashok Grover of
Groovy Communications: It will be a corporate product. Price point is too high
to be used by an individual. The laptops are yet to penetrate the markets; this
product is a far-fetched game.

Bharat Bhushan of
RR Systems: Frankly, I am yet to know what exactly is a Tablet PC. I am yet to
get a first-hand feel of this product. I feel the laptop market still has a lot
of potential to grow as it is yet to percolate down to the users. Perhaps once
the maturity levels for laptop has set in, people might give this PC a try.

Sujeet Narula of
Associated Business Computers: It will have the same visibility as the palmtops,
in fact, most of the users would take this Tablet PC as a PDA rather than a
computing device or as a replacement for their laptops. It has unnecessarily
attracted a lot of hype as it is yet to come in the market. I feel, to start
with, this will be more of a status symbol device.

Vikram Gupta of
Leading Edge: When in India PDA sales are yet to take off, how can such a
product take-off in a price sensitive market. I don't think this product is
relevant to the Indian conditions, where people are still buying Casio digital
diaries.

Saurabh Nagpal of
Multilink Computers: I feel to start with, Tablet PC will be a status symbol.
Few people know about this product. As the information will percolate down to
the masses, sales might pick up. I can see a lot of advertisement, but I am yet
to see an actual Tablet PC. Till the time people do not know what exactly is a
Tablet PC how can they predict the buying behavior.

Gurvinder Singh of Global Communications: People have been inquiring
about this product; as a matter of fact I have recently sold two Toshiba
Port‚g‚ 3505s. It is the ultra-rich people who are buying it. To start with,
I feel it will be a status symbol or will be used as an electronics notepad.