BlackBirdCD's Blog

I’ve wanted a great tablet form factor for years, so today I’m particularly curious to see what is to be revealed by Apple. I’m not expecting anything beyond the current rumors (and if there is something truly awe inspiring that the blogosphere has not heard of as yet, then more joy for us). My fascination goes back to the point where I first starting hearing about Microsoft’s efforts with the tablet.

At that time, Microsoft already had the MS Reader application, available for PDAs and other devices. When news of a TabletPC broke internally, it seemed to be a perfect match. Even though portable hardware systems would knowingly have power, storage, and connectivity issues (at least wireless networking was strong enough to make them usable), this was an exciting concept. My biggest excitement, however, was for a better stylus-screen drawing surface. With great anticipation I reached out to one of the Program Managers on the TabletPC team. His name escapes me, unfortunately, and I would probably not be inclined to repeat it even if I’d remembered who it was.

To my great surprise, my ideas of the TabletPC being an e-Reader and drawing platform were off their radar scopes. “This is to be a business machine, there’s no money out there for such consumer gadgets”. In their mind, the TabletPC form factor was to be only a digital version of a legal notepad. They had focused heavily on handwriting recognition (needed), but had no inclination to radically improve the UI – to adapt it for the new form factor. Most of them would be sold as a laptop with a rotating screen (yes there was the slate form factor as well). This is why, years later, you could never tell if someone actually had a TabletPC – users kept their screens flipped up like a laptop, typing on the keyboard and never using the pen input.

And while Wacom was tapped to provide the screen techology, nobody from Microsoft seemed to want to capitalize on their fantastic drawing technology. Why waste time targetting a design market when your sole focus is on the business executive? Wacom, the undisputed champions of stylus-screen technology, were asked to provide a more rudimentary interface (read as “cheaer”), one that didn’t allow for drawing sensitivity. Even my ten year old Wacom ArtIIz provided better resolution and actually had pressure sensitivity. I’m not sure at this time, if this kind of functionality will be on the new Apple tablet, but Microsoft was soooo close to a sweet spot here. There are those who have had a great time drawing this this device – and even I’ve done so on many occasions. It’s easier to draw with than, say, an Etch-a-Sketch, but not enough to make me want to do it with any regularlity.

Today, Apple is going to reveal a tablet device that capitalizes on a consumer audience. An audience that has the advantage of being previously shown how a quality consumer device can find its way into the business market (iPhone). My guess is that this new tablet, while not revolutionary in technology, will be one that pulls together many disparate personal experiences into a great form factor. And as Microsoft’s TabletPC slides further back into the history books, we’ll be wondering if a few years why this form factor wasn’t around a lot sooner. It was, but the product line was not properly targetted – nor was it corrected after many iterations. This was Microsoft’s market to lose, and while there is some fascinating thinking coming out of Redmond with touch-screens and surfaces, it’ll be up to them to decide if they can clear their heads aim at the right target for a change.

UPDATE POST-CONFERENCE: Dang, no stylus!