The Tablet PC Is Taking Quite a Beating These Days

Wow. I always knew the mainstream press hated Tablet PC’s from the day they were announced, but the last few days have been pretty rough. With Bill Gates and Steve Balmer demoing Windows 7 multi-touch capability at the D6 conference, and Bill talking about his pursuit of a Tablet PC in the hands of every student, the Tablet PC jumped back in to the hot seat and has become quite the punching bag (just one example of the many stories floating around the past day or two).

From a marketing perspective, no one can argue that Microsoft has not done its fair share to trip up an otherwise awesome computing platform. We’ve been quite vocal about how Microsoft doesn’t put its dollars and marketing effort where Bill’s voice and passion is. Were it not for the active communities that rally around the tablet and natural input technologies, there would be no tablet platform at all.

What I don’t understand is why the mainstream press continues to choose to hate the Tablet PC. I know the tablet platform isn’t for everyone, but is there a reason to point to the Tablet as another one of Microsoft’s failures? Is it a failure? You tell me, Tablet PC community? Talk it up amongst your sites, blogs, forums, etc.