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.

Getting Acquainted

Ok…I’ve finally caved in and started a blog. After several years of browsing the thoughts of others, I feel now is the time to speak-up, claim my piece of the intellectual web, and share my thoughts, opinions, experiences, and lessons learned…and to be heard by anyone willing to listen. To start, I feel it best I introduce myself.

For roughly the past seventeen years, I’ve been working in the information technology industry in various capacities; mainframe computer operator, computer programmer, QA engineer, software engineer, independent contractor, and software product entrepreneur. At the risk of dating myself further, I’ve had the dubious experience of programming not only in assembly while obtaining my degree, but also using punch cards as a member of the last team to be granted that “honor” while training for my military specialty at Ft. Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama back in the late ‘80’s. In short, I’ve seen a lot.

What have I seen? Well, I remember when IBM and WANG ran the world. I remember when Tandy computers used cassette tapes…remember those…to store data. I remember using the BASIC programming language in high school to program Apple IIe’s, storing everything on five and a half inch floppy disks and having to print to a dot matrix printer. I remember programming in Fortran 77 as an engineering major my freshman year in college on my school’s mainframe. I remember being mesmerized by Mitch’s Apple Macintosh: Mitch was another freshman student on my floor. It was the first time I had seen a computer with a graphical user interface, and I would spend hours exploring the options on the menu bar, the preferences and the settings – all after I finished pitting Mike Tyson against Rocky Marciano or Muhammad Ali in boxing of course - the whole time thinking to myself, “How do they do this?” I remember when a computer with a 66 megahertz processor was considered fast. I also remember when downloading one picture off the network at 9600 baud took 6 - 10 hours. Man…those were the days.

But, those days are gone, pleasant but fading memories of the information age’s adolescence; a time before Netscape brought the Internet to the masses by commercializing the web browser, before the term “dotcom” had any meaning, before stock options became popular outside of Silicon Valley, and before an old friend of mine coined the phrase “Dotcom Paid” with respect to all of the new wealth being created. It was a time when many of us, me included, got involved simply for the love of the game.

Love is what eventually led me away from engineering to computer science. My senior year, I worked as a maintenance programmer at a small shop that built CAD software for the Macintosh. That Mac development experience, and my love for America Online, opened the door for me to the Dotcom industry, the impact it is having on our society and the unprecedented opportunities that it provides.

In 1993, after switching my major to computer science a few years prior, I had an instructor pay me a tremendous compliment. He told me I had a gift. Now, I don’t know what he saw in my work, but after seventeen years in the industry I realize that I’ve been fortunate in that I have been able to identify several trends and/or technologies in the industry years before they were adopted by the mainstream and dominated their competition. For example:

• In 1993, I became an avid user of America Online, becoming an employee upon obtaining my degree in 1996. By 1997, America Online was the #1 Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the world.

• In 1997, I identified Java as the language of the future, making it the foundation of my skill-set as I transitioned into software engineering. By 2000, Java was the most sought after programming language in the world.

• In 2003, upon hearing about a new class of software being coined Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), I identified Flash as a force to be reckoned with and focused my entrepreneurial ventures in that direction. Flash – love it or hate it - is now the most widely distributed software in the history of the Internet, as well as the clear leader in the RIA space.

And, there have been several other predictions or "gut feelings", both before and after the aforementioned, that I am proud of. However, I am starting this blog to share my opinions and experiences – and to hear yours- regarding various aspects of the IT industry. Hopefully, it will be an interesing exchange.