My Gateway rep confirmed tomorrow is the last day for Gateway Direct. Was a real shock to my system when I went to show a co-worker the system I was going to order today and it was gone.

Anyone want to sell me a C-142XL or similar? =)

This could be good news. So far, Gateway is the only tablet maker I've seen that gave their retail partners a display that can actually show off what a tablet can do, as opposed to letting retailers lock them down with bars. If they divert resources from online to retail and continue to properly display tablets, it could be beneficial for the market. Maybe.

Agreed. Getting more Tablets in retail so that people can experience them is a good thing--assuming the sales staff really understands Tablets. That'll be the catch, at least in the beginning.

There is some availability at Gateway Auctions on ebay. You might try MPC who sells(sold?) the professional and eductional versions.

Since ACER bought Gateway, it will be ineresting to see what their plans for the Tablet PCs are.

I was able to see/use the C120 at Best Buy some time back. Only some of the features were useable the way they had it set up and linked to their in store "demo" site. Tablet PCs will sell if retailers let them show what they can do.

Could be good for the market, but it's bad news for the folks in North Sioux City, SD.

Today I was shopping at Costco and as usual I took a look through the electronics department. I was very surprised to see a HP TX2592 (I think that was the model number). It was not locked down so I could flip it into tablet mode - which shocked another shopper. However, it had no pen, and was password protected. The customer that saw me flip it, said she saw no point in the laptop with the "flippy" lid. I tried to explain to her what it was, but it went right over her head. It does no good to just stick one on the display. They need to tether a pen to it, and keep the OS unlocked. I never got the point of locking your customers out so they can't look at them.

Earlier, I notified PC Mag of the Gateway news in the tablet world, so that they could follow up. They now have published a report that Gateway is moving entire offline to retail stores starting this weekend.