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A Christmas Wish List for Mobile Geeks and Tableteers

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christmas6.gifOnce again here is my annual Christmas Wish List. The items that comprise the list aren’t gadgets or things, but by and large things I’d like to see happen in the mobile space and the Tablet PC space. Here’s a link to last year’s list, two years ago, and the one from three years ago. I’m an impatient old elf and would love to see these things occur sooner rather than later. Take the jump to see what my wishes are.

Now that touch is ubiquitous, I’d like to see some real answers about the problem with digitizers?

For touch users, I’d like to see Microsoft’s left hand quit foiling what its right hand wants to do by either getting rid of Windows 7 Starter Edition, or include the Touch and Pen bits relegated to Starter Edition.

And speaking of Touch and Tablets? Microsoft, I’d like to see you stand up a bit and actually promote the concept. It would be refreshing change, or are you just giving up?

I’d like to see all of those OEMs rushing to create a Tablet of some kind think twice before they leap into the market. Browsing the web is fun, until you need to actually enter some data.

Dear Apple. Release the damn thing already or go home.

I hope OneNote 2010 gets the attention it deserves. An excellent product.

I hope to see Android continue to push the envelope the way it appears to be doing.

I’d like to see some real news on Microsoft’s Three Screens and a Cloud strategy. Scratch that. Just make it happen.

I’d like to see mobile carriers come to their senses regarding pricing, business models, users vs devices, etc… Yeah, I know I’m dreaming big here.

Can we all acknowledge that there isn’t much room left for innovation in the Notebook/Netbook markets when it comes to form factor and features?

Google will own us all one day. It’s going to happen. Can we just move it along and get over it.

I’m still waiting for Apple to figure out Bluetooth on the iPhone. Maybe next year.

This is sort of a repeat but with a twist. I’d like to see CEOs of companies that ship products in packaging that can mutilate and injure customers be forced to open the packaging of the product when they stand up to announce it.

I was sorta glad to see companies like Viliv and Archos attempt to revitalize the UMPC form factor. Ok, that experiment is over. Can we move on now.

Let’s go ahead and move things along and get color for eBook readers.

Since the prevailing wisdom is that we’re all just waiting to read the world’s content on our mobile devices and this will save the publishing and content creation industries, can we actually start to see some content created that will make it worth our while to do so?

If Microsoft is working on something like the Courier Tablet, bring it out of hiding, learn to create some excitement, and just get on with it. The world will follow a device that allows creation AND consumption of content.

And as always, whirled peas.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. RandySpangler

    12/24/2009 at 2:50 pm

    Warner,

    Best wishes with your wishes. My grandfather used to say “Wish in one hand and %$#^ in the other and see which gets filled the quickest”

    For all of the absolutely horrible, unwanted products released into the wild, why can’t one company just give us what we have all been wishing for for over a decade? I read a statistic that 99% of all products released in Japan in a given year fail. What are these designers thinking? Do they test anything with real people? Do they read blogs? Do they even read their own support forums after they release a turkey?

    I think not…

    My perfect tablet would be big enough to simulate a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, maybe fold in the middle for carrying and protection and be pretty thin. It would need to have WiFi, IR and Bluetooth and have a traditional USB available for kbd, mouse, printer or whatever. It would absolutely require the ability to plug in a USB kbd to be truly universally usable.

    It would have multitouch and be more like an iPhone, not an iMac. We need multitasking, but not a Mac tablet IMHO. Reaching all the way into full-bore computerdom would probably kill it. Let it run apps and be a killer web browser. The web will be our computer in a few years anyway. Embrace the love.

    Oh, and it would charge off of the Bluetooth connector, Duh!

    And… not be wrapped in skin-slicing blister packaging :-)

    OK. Done. Easy, huh?

    Randy

  2. GoodThings2Life

    12/24/2009 at 4:40 pm

    @Warner… AMEN!!

    Personally, I want an HP 2730p with a slimmer, sleeker casing with Windows 7 and a multi-touch LED screen so that it’s visible outdoors… oh and, Nvidia Ion graphics.

  3. Scott

    12/25/2009 at 11:41 am

    I would ask for Windows 7 support/drivers for chipsets used in older slate tablets. Come on! If it works with xp tablet edition, why not support 7?

    …obviously no new tablet under the tree for me this year ;-)

    And I third the motion: “I’d like to see CEOs of companies that ship products in packaging that can mutilate and injure customers be forced to open the packaging of the product when they stand up to announce it.”

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