Is This Microsoft's Swan Song for the Tablet?

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gottabemobile.com/2009/12/31/2010-the-year-microsoft-lost-tablet' target='_blank'>http://www.gottabemobile.com/2009/1...oft-lost-tablet</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"For the past six months I&rsquo;ve been sitting on the sidelines watching Tablet dominate the news cycle. From the Crunchpad to the JooJoo, from the Courier to the iSlate, from the Android Tablet to Windows 7 Starter Edition Tablets &ndash; it is almost dizzying to watch. Engadget is covering Tablet like they&rsquo;ve loved it from the beginning. The New York Times is declaring 2010 to be the year of Tablet."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1262291317.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.motioncomputing.com/products/tablet_pc_J34.asp" target="_blank" title="Motion J3400 Tablet PC">Motion Computing</a>.</p><p>If the media determined what sold in the marketplace, you would think that by the end of 2010, everyone and their dog will have a tablet.&nbsp; Rob Bushway is right though; Microsoft has been in and dominated the tablet industry for years.&nbsp; Having used various tablets over the years, I have to say that Microsoft seems to have treated their tablets like an afterthought, a sideline to their core business.&nbsp; If would almost compare it to how they have treated their Windows Mobile division for the past few years.&nbsp; With prices on computers having drastically dropped, tablets will likely move out of vertical markets like medicine, warehousing and power business users, to the regular consumer.&nbsp; While there is some evidence of Microsoft turning their attention to tablets and touch, they may move too slowly, and like the media player, give away the market to a competitor.</p>

[Jason Dunn]

The hard reality is that Microsoft doesn't have a platform that is well-suited for a tablet. The iPhone/iPod Touch OS is extremely well-suited to that form factor. Every Windows-based tablet has sucked for a combination of reasons: the UI of the OS doesn't scale well to the form factor of a smallish tablet, and Windows requires a fair bit of horsepower to run well. Microsoft could have been grooming Windows CE or Windows Mobile to fill in the gaps, but it's not like the Windows Mobile team had their stuff together well enough to tackle another market.

I hate to say this, but the "upstart" OS' (Android, iPhone, etc.) are well-poised to take advantage of this form factor. Microsoft blew it on this front. I also believe, however, that tablets aren't really going to be as big as people think in 2010. Without a keyboard, tablets will be primarily consumption devices, not input devices. That limits what people can do with them. Still, I can see myself picking one up in 2010. :)

[The Yaz]

I agree with Jason that the Android OS makes a difference with the tablet format.

One of my vendors was using iPod Touch devices as bidding stations for their fundraising events. They were messy- dropping the wireless connection and accidentally resizing the screens because the guests were touching the screens with multiple fingers. They used to use iPAQ 3650's but the customers hated using the stylus to enter the bids.

This year they are using Archos 5 MID's running the Andriod OS. They are pretty stunning screens, battery life is good, and most of all they were able to run their own Android app right on the device instead of connecting to the database through the web browser.

I still would rather have the Zune OS instead if they could give it a better browser and applications (MS Reader please!).

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

I still would rather have the Zune OS instead if they could give it a better browser and applications (MS Reader please!).

Now THAT'S an interesting thought! Of course, Microsoft first has to open up their OS to outside app developers and get the Zune HD to a place of moderate success before taking it to another form factor.

You still use MS Reader? I thought it was all but dead, abandoned by Microsoft.

[stlbud]

It's interesting that Microsoft is getting blamed for the tablet pc's failures. My experience (though remote) has been different. The hardware has always been the downfall. When laptops were running multi-core processors at 2+Mhz tablets were running 1+ Mhz (and I mean 1.0, 1.2 but not 1.8). The tablet's screen was locked in at 1024 x 768 pixels (laptops were 1280 x 1024 and much better). Digitizers (the touch screen part of the display) were resistive and crummy resistive at that. When capacitive digitizers were suggested as a better alternative, reviewers and manufacturers declared the technology much to expensive. Now that Apple has put capacitive into iPod, those same reviewers and manufacturers have decided that anything but capacitive is a waste of time.

So, why is everyone blaming Microsoft. They only provide the OS, it's HP, Samsung, Fujitsu, and others who have been holding tablet pcs back. It was manufacturers who killed Origami not Microsoft.

When and if Apple comes out with their iSlate, all indications show it will be very close to the Origami Project size and shape (probably much thinner though).

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Tablets (the first few few under the Tablet PC initiative) have never used capacitive or resistive tech. They instead use licensed Wacom tech to allow for precise pen input.

In fact majority of not inexpensive tablets still use them; resistive or capacitive is usually reserved for the lower end of the market.

[The Yaz]

You still use MS Reader? I thought it was all but dead, abandoned by Microsoft.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I do (since I still carry around my Audiovox Maestro). As for MS Reader, it was recently updated for WM 6.0/6.1 http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.aspx

If the Zune HD had a slightly larger footprint (like the Archos series MID's) it would have gotten to where I think Apple's tablet is going to end up, but that would have taken vision- somthing MS hasn't had for a while now :(

Steve :cool: