- Rob Bushway

Much to chagrin of the mainstream press, Bill Gates has been nothing but persistent over the years with regards to the Tablet PC and his belief that natural input technologies, like ink, will one day be common place. Gates will enter his "retirement" by spending much of his 20% Microsoft time on pet projects like Research, Tablet PC, speech, vision, touch, and such. Gates doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would waste some of his most valuable resources, like time, on technologies that don't have long term viabilities. We happen to agree with him about the long term potential that natural input technologies have.

In many of the speeches that I've heard Gates give, including last year's MVP Summit, he frequently mentions the Tablet PC form factor. Lately, as Gates has been traveling the world, he has been spending a lot of time talking about putting a Tablet PC in the hands of every student. Tablet PC and touch was also a major talking point at this year's D6 conference. It is quite ironic, though, that the community which gives life to his passion has never heard from him directly in the almost six years that Tablet PC has been around. I can't recall seeing any interviews with Mr. Gates from TabletPCBuzz.com, TabletPCReview.com, TabletPC2.com, and yours truly, GottaBeMobile.com.

Mr. Gates, the community that is in step with your passion needs to talk with you - we want to hear from you directly about the technology we both care about, are concerned about, discuss, and believe in. Comments like these are indicative that there are some real issues that need discussing.

I'll be in Redmond in a few weeks meeting with your Surface team. I'd be happy to extend my trip by a day or two in order to spend some time talking with you about Tablet PC, touch, and mobile computing. Your Tablet PC team knows how to get in touch with me if you'd like to talk.