Rob: Good interview segment!

Scott's comments regarding the LS800 are certainly disappointing; what he's saying is that after having spent all the non-recurring engineering and design to create the product and then selling it for a couple of years, there STILL isn't enough of a market to support periodic upgrades! And this is for a product that should have been seen as CLEARLY superior to (then and) current UMPC designs. Sometimes, it really makes you wonder if the tablet market is really worth pursuing, or not! (But I'm glad that Motion is giving it a go...)

Regarding WriteTouch, I think that Scott's criterion ("...don't compromise the tablet experience...") is probably "write on" (pardon the pun!). As disappointed as I was when the WT was withdrawn, I think I agree that it needs to be done right. Comments about the Dell XT, that indicate that the N-trig digitizer might have vectoring problems WHILE INKING, are certainly cause for concern. We don't want to repeat the UMPC experience. I found it interesting that Scott did not say that the WT would be back; only that there would be developments in the product space (or words to that effect). Makes you wonder what they might be thinking of; maybe FinePoint's new digitizing approach or an advanced Wacom digitizer...???

As Scott Eckert made clear, the LS800 is a serious version of the UMPC. If Motion wasn't able to find a big enough market for the LS800 it is hard to believe that the multitude of UMPCs will have a big enough market to keep many of those machines in the market.

Two thought on why some of us love the LS800 and others have avoided it:
1. Without a dock and an external monitor it is not a serious computer and much of its advantage over the UMPC goes away. I worry that the need to stress this message resulted in people not getting the idea that this is a serious computer. Scott Eckert said he carried around an LS800 with him for two years; I'm willing to bet that at his desk he docked it and used a keyboard, mouse and external monitor. Having all that extra gear may have made the LS800 + dock too expensive for some people, but whenever pharmaceutical reps saw my LS800 they knew it was exactly what they needed, and I'd imagine it would have been cost effective for them to get what they could use best.
2. At the beginning there was an issue with the LS800 overheating. After a BIOS update and getting a dock I found the problem went away completely, but sometimes a product can never shake off an initial problem. I can even remember good products that failed because of misunderstandings. When I got an IBM PS/2 in 1987, lots of people expressed surprise that I would switch from DOS to OS/2, and no amount of explaining could convince them that this was a fine computer that could run operating systems that don't have a "/2" in them. I still have the keyboard, connected to my LS800 dock.

Classics live on, and good solutions come back when the technology improves, components get cheaper, or someone gets a marketing inspiration. It is hard to tell whether the one to make this work will be Apple, Motion (with some new inspiration), or OQO, ironically the sponsor of the interview. In the meantime the LS800 still works as well as it ever did (except for the docking problem under Vista).

One more point about UMPCs. If they add phone capability, they become like a Windows version of the iPhone. Such devices could do quite well. This would be my main suggestion for a LS800-class successor as well. Although one could use Skype with such computers, the need to keep the computer on to receive incoming calls was impractical due to battery life.

The model used in cellphones in which the device wakes up for an instant to check if someone is calling would be needed. I presume that the iPhone has such an ability. For UMPCs or LS800-class devices to catch on they will need this too.

The last thing I want is my Motion slate with a built in handle. Speak for yourself. It's a computer not a purse.

LOL @ Tom. I agree. Although it's unlikely any private person would buy a "handled" Tablet anyway, as its targeted for industry. The problem with Motion is that they PERFECTED the slate tablet PC - whether by accident, or otherwise - and have really snubbed the office or personal user with these industry-driven models. The slate form factor risks going the way of Betamax, just because no one is driving it into the forefront, and there's a lot of phony blather that "people don't like slates" etc. Motion could prevent that, but not sure they are up to the job. The L-series tablets were disappointing on CPU and hard drives, two things that office or personal users really care about. I hope we get a new NON-industry slate from Motion that ups the ante. They also need to MARKET the slates. People aren't buying slates because they hate them, they aren't buying them because they have no idea what the heck they are. (An argument as old as tablet pc computing itself.) Motion should make a deal with a big box store, and then have dedicated training of the blue shirts on how to use, sell and promote the slate. And how not to lose the pens.