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by James Robertson.
Original Post: Excitement over Tablet PCs
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Scoble is on about Tablet PCs again - and does point out a few lucrative markets for them - hospitals and (large) restaurants. In those spaces, walk around devices likely could be quite big - altough I have some doubts about PC sized devices. I rather suspect that the sweet spot is for much smaller machines that can easily be carried by busy staffers. If you spend hours on your feet, you'll want to stuff the computer in a pocket. Touchpad PDA, yes. Full size, tablet, no. His last idea strikes me as funny though:
Then, take them for a walk down University Ave. Hand them the Tablet PC. Point out that the entire downtown area is a WiFi hotspot. What good is all that wireless unless you can use a computer while standing up? Now, think about all the workers who work while standing up. The teachers. The lawyers. The journalists. The newsbabes on TV.
Personally, I have less than no interest in walking and computing. I want to sit, where I can type, probably with a coffee. Walking around with a full sized screen that won't fit in my pocket sounds awful. I travel with a notebook regularly, and I want no part of that. I suspect that most business travelers are similar; a tablet (so long as it has a keyboard) is a nice to have, not a need to have. WiFi access and a keyboard that doesn't kill the hands and wrists are far, far higher up on the watchlist. I'm going to spend a truly trivial amount of time scribbling anything through a pen (or finger) interface; I'm going to spend scads of time typing. Which means a bad keyboard (hello Dell Latititude) is the thing to watch out for.
Yes, there are plenty of interesting uses for tablets. But in many of the places Scoble thinks will flock to them, I don't see it.
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