I just checked ActiveInkSoftware's homepage and it looks like it's a great program for Tablet PC users. It really helps fill out forms with ease. This is one of the top software that I would download if I owned a tablet pc.

Things like this make me wonder how the hardware developers for some of these major companies feel about the lack of marketing and sales for their products. Working as a hardware developer for servers, I know how aggravating it is for our team to find out that the sales folks just aren't showing our products. Sometimes, unfortunately, I think it's easier for them to just sell what they either know about or what their client already knows about. It's easy to get companies to buy laptops...big deal. Now...try and talk those companies into investing several thousand dollars into tablets or other portable computers, along with the software. It's completely changing their frame of mind to get them to buy into the new technologies. I'd be interested in seeing sales numbers for individual lines of products for companies like Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

With all this talk going on here lately about the failures of the TPC platform and who to blame: hardware vendors, software vendors, or bad choices in marketing. Also seeing reviews about webcams, Eee PC, and the ideapad. It almost feels as if this site is starting to give up on tablets. Maybe I'm being presumptuous, but it feels as if the GBM gang and others (vendors included) are giving up. Not on the mobile lifestyle, but rather on the future of tablets.

Elias - no way at all. I'll share some thoughts on that tomorrow, and I'm sure others on the team, including Craig, will probably pipe in, too.

I'm not giving up. I see tremendous potential. What is being layed out are the challenges and what needs to be done to meet those challenges.

Elais, Rob ;-) and I'm looking forward to your post.

My bad...

I'll be looking forward to this future discussion also. Lead the way GBM folks. Lead the way.

I liked the looks of the software.
I even tried the short trial, which was too
crippled to tell if it wouold work or not.

Expense was also another concern. While it is more
expensive for specialized software, it factored into our
choice.



ActiveInk has alot of potential, but at the time it wouldn't
convert to PDF files, too proprietory. So we went with another software.

I actually believe the tablet format has a great future. People are now more used to 'touch' on their phones, PDAs, interactive displays at museums, transport stations and similar. It will just need the one 'must have' bit of kit, like the Eee that really captured the imagination, and we'll see a whole slew of copycat devices.

The one thing that's held back the tablet? Cost.

I don't think the example of Active Ink extends well to tablet pc's in general.

As SAM put it, product pricing is high compared with available alternative approaches to form-fill. It may well be that the product provides a good value for some markets -- I don't intend to criticize Active Ink -- but the fact that one product does not sell well does not mean that there is a problem with the platform. Personal computers have been a success, but a lot of applications on them have failed in the marketplace, even though they may have had some merit.

Just a point of clarification. We are doing quite well selling Active Ink in the tablet PC market. We wish the market was larger, but who doesn't? My disappointment was with tablet PC sales in general.


Steve Hoffman
Active Ink Software
http://www.activeinksoftware.com

I have always been suprized at how few GBM readers use ActiveInk. I use ActiveInk on a daily basis and find it to be probably my favorite application.

Doug