As a tech guy i'm excited by where the tablet PC has taken fruition over the years into the very useable products available on the market today - and yes, Microsoft should be celebrating! UMPC's aren't far behind of course, and it's nice to see a community such as this that shares the vision. My first dip into Tablet PC's was with the Acer C204 which really was a cracking all round PC and I could see the value of the Tablet function - but it wasn't the right device for me. I have believed for a while now that UMPC's are the future, and i've had the 'interesting' experience recently of selling the concept into the business I work for.

Hopefully i'll be blogging about this Monday/Tuesday next week but basically it goes like this:

I bought my Asus R2H and I love it. Like many people in this community we'll be seen as early adopters of a product that in general (Press wise) doesn't seem to have a market apart from the 'gadget' peeps out there. Until I started to chat amongst communities such as this I felt like I was the only one who saw where the UMPC could fit into businesses and schools.

My manager presented at an expo today where we had our company stand, pushing Cisco Business solutions to people involved with BSF (Building Schools for the Future) which is essentially the UK government's pledge to rebuild all primary and secondary schools in the UK and put future technology at the heart of every school. I consider my boss to be a visionary and a techy but when he saw the R2H for the first time he saw it as a gadget and nothing else. The exciting news was that he decided he wanted to use the device for the expo and after he spent an evening faffing around with the R2H, I quote: "Any chance we can get exclusive distribution of these devices in the UK?!" - what an awesome response. Evidently there just needs to be more market exposure...

So essentially today this UMPC stood on our stand running VT Advantage Video Camera software (Which supports the BisonCam - woohoo!), Cisco Personal Communicator, and OneNote. Our stand was seen by hundreds of people, and i'm glad to say there are alot of schools out there who are committing to buying devices such as these but aren't quite sure which ones to buy for students. Hopefully as the BSF project expands We'll be talking orders of 1000's of Tablet PC's. At the moment UMPC's are too heavy for kids, and not powerful enough to just boot up quickly at the start of a lesson and start inking. But imagine where the UMPC fits in as a wireless learning device, where teachers use Outlook to schedule student's classes for the year, and you can email your homework as a handwritten OneNote.

We're not quite there yet, but in a few years time my humble opinion is that having UMPC's in every school and every board room will be the norm; and as the market demand increases OEM's will build better devices at cheaper prices - it can only get better for all of us.

Mike.

By the time I need bi-focals the UMPC form factor will be ubiquitous. Of course my arthritus will then demand a larger slate - so back to "squre one"?

Seriously, how about a slate with a handle on the side so the geriatric have less chance of dropping it?

Joe, Motion C5. Somebody just needs to convince Motion it's not just for doctors. Great handle. Only comes in white.

S

I bought a m1400 off of ebay last year and I love it. I'm an engineering student and so I bought it to take notes, and it does an absolutely beautiful job of it. Some things I would love to see on the platform? Promotion at schools for one! One note was really pushed to students at my school, but they hardly ever mention tablets as a great total notebook replacement.

Another thing? How about a stripped down OS built for tablets? The only thing stopping me from using Linux in general is that it doesn't have the same support, utility, and applications that I have come to love on my win XP tablet. And what about OS X? When is Apple going to start charging people an arm and a leg for their tablet?

UMPC's seemed neat, but I just don't see the need. What with how expensive they are, and yet you are getting half the utility of a good tablet? Bah! I'm much more interested in something that is a dedicated ultra-mobile device, like the Nokia 810. Also like the idea of the Asus Eee PC, but that's not a tablet at all. Still neat though!

I think the general populous, at least those who know about tablets, think they are cool but still kind of gimmicky. I don't think most companies would buy them for the same reason; they just don't realize that they *can* be efficient, and that with certain tasks you really can be more productive. I think that given more time and exposure, the tablet will go farther than it has already. I believe that it is almost inevitable.

I've had a tablet pc since the TC1000 first came out, and had windows ce (and Win95) "Internet Tablets" prior to that.

In all honesty, I left my X61 pen at a hotel several months ago, and I still haven't bought a new $50 one from lenovo. Maybe I should reconsider the extra grand I'm paying for every tablet . . .

I wonder when Apple will bring their Tablet to the market? This would create some fresh buzz in the Tablet business. Could you write about that, Rob & Co?

Additionally, I have been following the success of Linux-based Nokia Internet Tablet, nowadays Nokia N800 + newer models. OK, this is not a Tablet PC, but it has a lot of potential. I would like read about your experiences , Rob & Co.

I feel a bit like Ouzome, my Lenovo X41 Tablet has lost it's shine and since THE TC1000 nothing has really happened in the scene. Additionally, Microsoft is poorly and slowly supporting handwriting recognition of many languages in the resource-hungry Vista.

Let's hope that there will be something new and fresh coming in the Tablet scene.