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A Christmas Wish List for Tablet PC and Mobile Geeks

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christmas6 This is my annual Christmas Wish List of things I’d like to see for Tablet PC and mobile device users. Here’s a link to last year’s and the year before.) This isn’t a best of list, or a set of predictions (already done that) , nor is it a list of gadgets I’m looking for under a tree or in a stocking. Rather, these are things I’d like to see happen. As in year’s past, I’m an impatient old elf (no jokes, Matt) so I’d like to see these wishes sped along if you please.

So, take the jump and see what I’m wishing for. Feel free to chime in with yours as well.

I’d like to see Microsoft start talking more about Tablet PCs and their Inking ability in a positive sense. But then that would require that they understand Tablet PCs and its unique abilities in the first place.

Since Microsoft is rumored to be talking about job cuts in January, I hope they start with their marketing folks. Microsoft’s marketing needs a do-over.

I’d like to see the advances we keep hearing about in battery life come closer to reality.

I’d like to see Intel’s roadmap for MIDs sped up.

I’d like to see the Telcos and Broadband providers focus less on creating the crappy software and services they provide with smartphones and instead focus on actually rolling out and maintaining their networks and providing good customer service.

I’d like to see those who sell and market the products be forced to open them and use them. Then perhaps we wouldn’t see such dangerous packaging that can mutilate, and we’d hopefully see less silly mistakes in the age of Beta hardware.

I’d like to see Toshiba and Fujitsu shift their PR strategies and more actively compete with Lenovo and HP when it comes to selling Tablet PCs.

I wish we’d see some software that will justify the move to multi-touch in Windows 7.

I hope we’ll see a capacitive touch digitizer from Wacom that will work magnificently.

I’d like to see Netbooks continue to roil the market place no matter what we call them.

I’d like to see Apple actually market a Tablet, not because I would buy one, but because it might actually bring a sea change in thought about Tablet PCs. I don’t think they will, because obviously they can’t figure out the handwriting recognition.

I’d like to see Windows Live Mesh hurry it along. This is a great service in the making.

I’d love to see the next version of OneNote get the attention it deserves.

I’d like to see the Obama administration’s initiatives on Broadband come to be.

I’d like to see Apple get over itself, or tell AT&T to take a hike, and put in a decent Bluetooth solution for the iPhone, install a decent camera, allow Flash on the iPhone, give us cut & paste, and continue to innovate.

I’d like to see something, anything, from and about Tablet PCs that excites me and the market as much as the iPhone app store continues to do.

I’d like to see a move away from glossy cases and screens that do nothing but attract smudges and fingerprints. Who in their right mind thinks that a product that is full of smudges 10 seconds after unboxing is a good idea?

Oh, and as always, whirled peas.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Rob Bushway

    12/24/2008 at 12:25 pm

    Love it , Warner. Agree with your wishlist 110%

  2. Gavin Miller

    12/24/2008 at 2:59 pm

    Sounds good Warner, can I suggest a change of career in 2009, possibly CEO at Toshiba or Dell?

    Well, it’s 2 hours to the big day here in Scotland so logging off and getting well hidden presents out of their hiding places while enjoying a Baileys Irish Cream with the lovely Lisa. Hope you guys have a great day with your families and all your 2009 tech wishes come true!

    Merry Christmas!

  3. Medic

    12/24/2008 at 4:03 pm

    Great wishlist. I agree largely.

    1st wish: I think it’s time microsoft actievely looks up the tablet pc community.

    2nd wish: I think job cuts in marketing is a step in the right direction. I do however think that the maintenance organization also needs a do-over. Microsoft maintenance is so cluttered right now. Everyone seems to know only part of the whole.

    3rd wish: yes, please!

    4th wish: wouldn’t know. I’m not much into the MID’s

    5th wish: I agree. I also think app creators from different smartphone companies and smartphone OSs should colaborate. Great apps with great features are snipped too much. Bundle them in one program and offer the option of being able to run an app of another OS to your own. I do however disagree on maintaining networks. It should be well maintained as it forms a basis for many apps and communication, that what it all started with.

    6th wish: good lesson for the marketers. I agree

    7th wish: I agree. But…compete smartly and not bluntly copy to deliver an incomplete product for the reason of price. Let them also think for out of the box and bring forward a new technology that sparks attention!

    8th wish: …and hardware for that matter. Only a handful of products currently provide “working” multi-touch.

    9th wish: no comment.

    10th wish: I still do not fully comprehend the netbook. Why compromise on the screen. I would either choose a tablet pc, or opt for a regular laptop with a larger screen for more screen real estate and less issues of squinting eyes due to the screensize.

    11th wish: I wouldn’t know. I would like to know what others think regarding this item.

    12th wish: I agree.

    13th wish: I definitely agree. I still haven’t heard though if it will become a total makeover. I am very curious though if it will become more tablet friendly and with better integration with Outlook.

    14th wish: ?

    15th wish: who could not agree on this matter?

    16th wish: :)

    17th wish: the consumer apparently. Bling bling.

    Merry Christmas and the best resolutions for 2009!

  4. blash

    12/24/2008 at 5:47 pm

    I agree with you Warner, just want to shout out that the Tablet PC market would absolutely take off if Apple made a TPC, I’ve showed off my X200T to numerous other teachers and students and many of them said that they would kill for one and buy it as their next PC if it wasn’t for 1 of 2 things – 1) not an Apple and 2) too expensive. Apple can definitely make some inroads here, all it’s gotta do is slap together a 1st gen product from a hardware perspective (i.e. nothing new or exciting from hardware design), integrate tablet features into iWork, and (maybe) get Inkwell fixed up (my handwriting sucks so Vista can’t recognize my handwriting, doesn’t bother me that much for my current uses). If Apple would only do some proper studies of the academic community (i.e. not, “Would you use an Apple TPC?” “What’s that? Oh I can’t be bothered” but rather, “Look at all this amazing academic-related stuff you can do with a TPC, would you be interested in buying an Apple TPC?” “Hell yes!”), Apple would cut the bullshit of “it’s a niche market” and rush a TPC out the door and make an insane amount of money – MS would’ve done it, but like you said, MS marketing deserves to be fired, their future replacements deserve to be fired, their replacements’ replacements need to be sent back to college, hired, then fired, and then the 3rd generation of replacements needs to be put on probation. That’s how bad the lasting legacy of MS marketing is that will be had on future generations of MS marketers – if you have a killer product that *everyone* with know-how knows is a killer product and it STILL WON’T SELL – you got problems, so we gotta wipe that out – multiple passes on the reformat please, so to speak.

    Also, I would like to see something like the App Store done for PC/Mac in general – i.e., something like Steam but more generalized (not just games) and bundled at the OS level. The AS worked because people would boot their iPhones/iPod Touches, click on the App Store icon out of curiosity, see something they liked and bought it for peanuts. Get that on the desktop OS where people will be able to get at least software digitally-distributed, in fact, considering the success of the AS I would not be surprised if something like it was revealed for OS X at MacWorld or WWDC – at the same time, move iTMS out of iTunes and combine it with this new AS for OS X so that people can buy literally anything for their Macs, iPhones, and iPod Touches be it software or entertainment from 1 portal, sync it across all their devices, redownload it as many times off the internet as needed with just a log-on needed to play it/use it, (more Steam model business approaches), etc. etc. and that is a f****** awesome end-user solution that MS would not be able to beat for ages (especially since trying to get all the developers for Windows onboard is a much harder task).

    I still believe in what Apple could do, but unfortunately Apple seems to be throwing away many of these oppotunities as my final wish is a cumulative, Apple – carpe diem s’il vous plait.

  5. Ben

    12/24/2008 at 7:36 pm

    I’d like to see a windows gui actually built for styluses and fingers. While the TIP works well, i find it annoying to open and close all the time. With WPF now being used, it should be relatively easy for them to create a “tablet theme” for windows which transforms all their controls into stylus-and-finger-friendly versions.

  6. GoodThings2Life

    12/24/2008 at 9:24 pm

    I agree completely– especially about the peas!! :)

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