Hardware
Motion’s Mike Stinson on Tablets as Purpose-Built Devices
It seems like just about everyone is weighing in on Tablets here in the rush to tomorrow. (I guess that can work both metaphorically and literally.) Motion Computing’s Mike Stinson (VP of Marketing) has an interesting post on the Motion Computing Blog called Year of the Tablet? Focus on Purpose-Built Devices.
His point? Apple and others rushing to get Tablets out the door are doing so as purpose-built devices (form follows function) and the function is all consumption driven. Of course, Motion is tooting its own horn here, (as it has every right to do so) but it is interesting to see at least some commentary from some of the folks who were involved in the Microsoft Tablet PC days on all of this.
Mickey Segal
01/26/2010 at 8:08 pm
Motion missed the boat by focusing on the healthcare vertical and not going mass market.
Apple is likely to focus on an accessory device and not something that can be docked and used as a real computer.
Someday someone will get it right and produce a computer small enough for a jacket pocket yet powerful enough when docked to be one’s main computer. It may be a matter of waiting for better technology or it may just be a matter of waiting for the right vision.
Rob
01/26/2010 at 10:46 pm
Mike’s spinning the consumer focus, but I predict that the same doctors and nurses who are now carrying iPhones in the hospital will carry this apple tablet due to the app support.
I think Mickey is right regarding focus – I think Motion honing in on healthcare is to their detriment. Something like this Apple tablet has real potential to upset that cart for Motion. Wrap that apple tablet in an Otterbox and you have a rugged device at more than 50 – 75% of a Win 7 Motion solution.
I don’t think syncing to a main computer is necessary any more. The apps sync to a central computer in the background (think EverNote) – the need to sync to computers or dock to main computers has long left the dock (pun intended). Healthcare industries creating healthcare based iPhone / iTablet apps with parameters to their local server for sync.