I Guess I’m Pretty Lousy As A Tablet PC Evangelist

Wow. I must be failing big time as a Tablet PC evangelist. In the last three weeks I’ve had three of my employees come to me and solicit advice on buying a new portable computer. Three others have made a new purchase since the first of the year and also sought my advice. They are all familiar with my use of Tablet PCs and Ultra-Mobile PCs as they see me using them all the time, as well as hear me sing their praises constantly. (I don’t really sing, that would be bad.) They also are very familiar with the benefits that they indirectly receive by my use of a Tablet PC. But each was more interested in a run of the mill laptop and had no interest in considering a Tablet PC. After running through the drill of asking them what they wanted to use the new device for and the inevitable budget question several things became apparent.

• They all want Core 2 Duo machines.
• They all want to stay with XP and are vocally and sometimes violently anti-Vista.
• Going above $1000 is a huge psychological barrier. In some of these cases it isn’t a question of finances.

Granted, our little world here at Wayside Theatre is far from representative of the larger one out there, but I find this to be a fascinating look at a prospective purchaser’s mindset. That is especially true on the price issue. The price issue is the paramount one that keeps coming up, and like I said, it isn’t some of them can’t afford more, it is the perception of what they think they should be paying for a portable computer. The prevailing wisdom was summed up nicely by this statement: ““$1,000 or under just seems like the right price to pay for a portable computer.” When asked how much they would be willing to fork out for a new desktop machine the cost threshold rose to $1500 almost across the board. Fascinating.

I’m going to go practice my evangelism skills now.