The Road To Windows 8 Tablets Is Uphill

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/windows-8-tablets-world/' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011...-tablets-world/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Windows-based tablets haven&rsquo;t been treated kindly by the test of time. Those released in the Windows XP era relied on wonky, stylus-based data entry, and even modern, touch-based tablets running Windows 7 are poor performers. Indeed, Microsoft has a troubled tablet history that the public isn&rsquo;t soon to forget. This November, Forrester released a study that showed consumer interest in a Windows-based tablet dropped significantly this year. At the start of 2011, 46 percent of potential tablet owners wanted a Windows device. By Q3, that number slipped to 25 percent."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/lpt/auto/1325274357.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Windows has been losing a lot of ground lately.&nbsp; As technology advances, the need for a desktop computer, or even a laptop has become less and less so for your average consumer.&nbsp; While Microsoft fights in the smartphone market with Windows Phone 7, it hopes to see success in the tablet market with Windows 8.&nbsp; While Windows 7 tablets do exist, they have not been flying off the shelves like iPads.&nbsp; With iOS and Android currently dominating the market, can Microsoft become relevant?&nbsp; If they are willing to stay in it for the long run, I believe so.&nbsp; This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to make a market a three-party system.&nbsp; The original X-box was a gamble, and cost Microsoft a considerable amount of money, but now in its second iteration (and maybe soon to be third), the company has carved itself a sizable chunk of the console market.&nbsp; It might just be able to repeat that success with tablets.</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

"wonky, stylus-based data entry"? Have they forgotten about pencils and paper?? If you get away from a keyboard, that's still what you use today. Every freaking device, tablet, laptop, cell phone, what-have-you presents you with a keyboard, whether physical or on screen. If we don't have one of those handy in real life we grab a pencil or pen, and paper, or palm, or something like that. We don't stick our fingers in ink and write with the ends of our digits. What was so freakin' wrong with giving me a pen to interact with my digital page? Why, when we get a flat piece of electronic paper, do we forget how to use a writing instrument. I have a Granddaughter in kindergarten and by golly they are still teaching writing with a pencil, so it isn't like kids grew up without the knowledge.

Look around at the accessories available for capacitive touch screen devices. Lots of stylii, aren't there? Do these seek to emulate a pen? Nooo, they have to simulate a finger. They are trying like hell to make handwritting work on a capacitive screen, when it has worked just fine since 2005 with a Wacomm style stylus.

I'll admit, no defend, that much can be done with a finger on a touch screen device. I have an iPad and an Android Tablet....but a lot can't be. At least not easily. Yea, windows sucks if all you got is a finger, but spreadsheets and word processing suck if all you got is a finger too. That which can't be finger friendly needs to be accomodated, unless you always want two devices to cover the 'I want to consume stuff' and 'I want to create stuff' dichotomy.

Hopefully Windows 8 helps solve some of that, letting me create when I need to and consume when I need to, but also allows me to do that in the way that is appropriate, and convenient, or dictated at the time.

BTW, I have Windows tablets, XP, Win7 and Win8, and I can do the same stuff with them as I do my Android and iOS devices; much with my fat finger, but much more with my skinny, pointy mouse (stylus). I can even make that on-screen keyboard so it doesn't take up half the screen, and still hit the letters.