Finally...The Arrival of the Tablet-PC

The cover of the March issue of Wired magazine proclaims "How the Tablet Will Change the World". Now that is a very bold statement given tablet computers have been on the market since the early 2000's. Yet, pre-orders for the iPad were strong, indicating that tablet-pc's appear to have arrived in the eyes of consumers.

Over the years, have you noticed that screen sizes have been increasing on virtually all devices that visually present information to the user; television screens have been getting bigger, computer screens have been increasing in size and the same can be said about mobile phones. The logic behind this trend is simple: you want the largest screen practical for the situation, because a larger screen facilitates a better user-experience. With respect to computers, tablet-pc's in particular, it means that more information can be presented to the user and in a much friendler format than competing technologies, like a netbook, but in a smaller overall package than say a laptop.

I purchased my first tablet-pc, a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400, in 2003 when I sought "the largest screen practical" for a mobile solution I had envisioned. Several competitors had already entered the market with cell phone and PDA based solutions without much success. A tablet-pc provided a much better solution. And, even though the tablet technology was not fully mature at the time, the solution was solid.

Now, I have yet to use an iPad, and from what I've read it's missing some key features and functionality that may hurt it in the long run, i.e. multi-tasking, flash support and a USB port(s) to name a few. But, in addition to those features, my ultimate tablet would also have:

• a pointing device or trackball or both for navigation, not my fingers (The ability to resize windows with your fingers is nice, but I don't know many people who still resize their windows)
• handwriting recognition (There is software available for this)
• a camera for pictures and video conferencing
• docking station support

Regardless, the excitement surrounding the iPad, with all its shortcomings, finally signals the arrival of the tablet-pc. Look for many competitors to follow with new or enhanced products, for educational institutions to embrace the technology, and for the Netbook market, and possibly other markets, to erode.