The readers here at umpcportal are generally a productive bunch. Many of you have been following the swiss-army knife of mobile computing, the handheld windows pc, for years and judging by the comments here, I know that a lot of you know exactly what you want.
Given that you’re an intelligent bunch I wanted to ask you your opinion on Windows Tablets.
Intel have just announced a run of Windows tablet PC’s for 2011 and we can expect them to be on both the Pinetrail and the new Oaktrail platform. Weight is likely to be 800gm and battery life no more than 5hrs given the size constraints. Capacative screens are likely to feature heavily and you can guarantee that there will be more than one overlay package included that is supposed to make Windows 7 finger-friendly.
My position is much as it has always been. Mobile PC’s have their place but the requirement for full desktop operating systems is going down, not up. Sure, with a marketing push there might be some sales to be had but that’s nothing to do with ‘requirement’ right?
And what about the tablet form factor? Is that the best form factor to be putting out with a mouse-driven OS?
I’m interested to hear your views and specifically, thoughts about the following questions.
– Is the requirement for Windows 7 Tablets going up or down?
– Is the tablet form factor the best for a full handheld pc?
– What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
– What are the major selling points of a Windows handheld PC?
– Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets? http://www.umpcportal.com/?p=22892
Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets?: The readers here at umpcportal are generally a productive bunch. Man… http://bit.ly/gN2ceL
#technology Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets?: The readers here at umpcportal are generally a productiv… http://bit.ly/evWHZU
Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets?: The readers here at umpcportal are generally a… http://goo.gl/fb/PjA5w
Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets?: The readers here at umpcportal are generally a… http://goo.gl/fb/CTspY
To me the major feature of Windows “Touch” is not about “Touch” but about “Inking”. Windows has good applications in this direction (Windows Journal – Handwriting that allows you to search text WITHOUT explicitly converting it into printing. And it is preinstalled in W7HP!).
Honestly, the only reason I’d buy a Windows tablet is because plucking it into a keyboard-containing case makes it an alternative to classical convertible notebooks. But then again, by aiming at qualifying as “Tablets” there are usually severe cuts done to weight at the cost of battery life, it seems. Therefore going for a normal convertible seems better again…
I like the concept of tablets, but for windows I still need a proper Keyboard around in SOME way (not being built into the tablet gives some welcomed flexibility) to use Windows fully productively on them.
Oh, and a inductive stylus would be preferred to any kind of finger-touch for the sake of precision.
– Is the requirement for Windows 7 Tablets going up or down?
I think if prosumers had the chance to really see Win7 Tablets w/OneNote in action, I think they’d take off. Witness the incredible buzz over the HP Slate 500 over on TabletPCReview.
– Is the tablet form factor the best for a full handheld pc?
I think once prosumers have enjoyed the benefits of a good slate, they’ll want their desktop-replacement laptops to be convertable too. The traditional single hinge design however is a big fail. Something more like the slide and tilt smartphones or the Dell Duo would be much more durable form factors for convertables.
– What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
Touch only Win 7 tablets are a non starter for prosumers. The ability to work with content creation applications requires a stylus. Note that serious Adobe production bundle users usually hook up Wacom tablets even to their desktops. Mice done’t cut it. Microsoft handwritting recognition is downright magical. I have no problem creating long documents on the go with an active digitizer.
– What are the major selling points of a Windows handheld PC?
Mobile productivity. OneNote, Microsoft’s most closely guarded secret.
– Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
I think it’s best to think of Windows Tablets as prosumer devices. Kind of like DSLRs verses point and shoots in the camera world.
The tablet is not a form factor. If it was then in the days of origami and while covering the releases of UMPCs you would have called those devices’ form factors tablets. They were in a slate form factor, although many of them were often tablets also. I know that can be confusing for dumb people. Yet another example of your cutting-edge ability to understand the markets you cover and communicate accurately to consumers who turn to you for quality information. Big mistake on their part.
Moreover, you’re tripping up on the whole Windows 7 thing. It had more to do with connected devices versus personal computers. A connected devices is going to rely on software services. A PC is going to run an operating system like Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows 7, or one of the many Linux distributions. This is the real issue, as some of do still want real computers in hand held form factors. I guess that’s a good reason to visit a website with UMPC in the title, as I thing that refers a type of personal computer and not a type of form factor, connected device, or specific operating system.
– Is the requirement for Windows 7 Tablets going up or down?
Neither. It’s the same. There still aren’t the right devices out there yet. There have been high quality Windows tablets for a very long time. There haven’t been very many cheap ones that are any good. What we need are cheap ones that compare favorably to the expensive ones. There’s no doubt that a netbook is a compromise of features compared to a full laptop, but the trade-offs are so bad that they’re not useful. There’s really no Windows tablet equivalent to this yet. When there’s a moderately thin 10 inch $300 windows tablet that gets 7 hours of battery life, none of the perceived weaknesses of the platform are going to matter that much. Other devices are popular because they’re delivering on points that seem necessary but aren’t sufficient: battery life, thin-ness, and novely. In reality, if Windows 7 ran on an identical form factor to the Galaxy Tab and pulled similar battery life, that would be pretty popular.
– Is the tablet form factor the best for a full handheld pc?
No, but the slate is. That is why it was designed by the industry. Clamshell devices are awkward to use in handheld scenarios. Tablet functionality is the best content input method for hand held computing. Pen’s are superior for interacting with onscreen elements. Off-screen pointing devices provide the greatest usability. Off-screen keyboard provide the best keystroke input methods. Passive digitizers are also very nice to have, but only having a finger input available is a little like driving around in a Reliant Regal. It will get you there but…come on. If you ever used an OQO model 02 then you know just how good Windows can be even when the touchscreen doesn’t care that you have fingers.
– What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
Hybrid digitizers are the most important. Capacitive digitizers are over-rated. Consumers are pretty dumb when it comes to differentiating between problems and solutions. They like that capacitive digitizers solve important input problems for them, and they confuse that with being necessary. In reality, high quality resistive digitizers solve the same problems in the same ways. The important thing is that is digitizing finger input needs to be high quality and needs to be complemented with an active digitizer. An active digitizer adds nothing to Android. An active digitizer adds nothing to iOS. An active digitizer makes Windows 7 one of the most powerful computing environment available. A hybrid digitizer gives people the best of both worlds, convience and usability.
– What are the major selling points of a Windows handheld PC?
That’s never changed. It’s a UMPC = Ultra Mobile Personal Computer. The personal computer was not first. It was a response to client-server paradigms that just don’t work for anybody except for the vendors that supply and support them. I guess they should start selling horses and carriages again because people will probably think that it’s such a new and different and better solution to dumb old cars. Otherwise, why would the idiots of today be clamoring to return to the client-server dark ages by using moron-targeted operating systems like iOS, Android, and ChromeOS. A PC is just better for individuals. That’s probably never going to change. You shouldn’y need a data contract to access your data. You shouldn’t need to connect to a server to edit your data. You shouldn’t have a third party deciding what software you can install, what versions of operating systems you can upgrade to, or who you can get your software from. You’re an idiot if you put yourself in that position. Forget about Windows, a PC is great. You can run real software obtained ANYWHERE written by ANYONE. People can design, develop, and sell or give away whatever software they want and they don’t need a vendor intefering with the process or curiating consumers’ choices. You can upgrade software easily, and nobody is telling you that your computer won’t be receiving the newest version of the operating system that you rely on. I don’t think the problem is that people don’t understand why PCs are great, although maybe it is. However, the real problem is that people just don’t get how ridiculously dumb connected devices are, and in particular how bad the current setup within the iOS and Android ecosystems are. I believe this is why we have sites like Carrpad urging people towards ruin.
– Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
Probably. Once again, there’s no reason why we can’t market netbooks with Windows 7 as consumer devices, so there should be no reason why a similar tablet can’t be marketed either. People probably don’t realize that however good of a desktop operating system Windows 7 is, it’s a better tablet operating system. If you’ve ever used Windows 7 on a real, high quality tablet, then you know that there’s no way that a connected device compares favorably. In everything that a connected device can do, it doesn’t do it as well as a real windows tablet and a real windows tablet can do even more. But forget about Windows. A cheap handheld device with a variety of quality input methods that gets relatively good batter life and is impressively portable (either very thin, very small, or very light) is going to sell OK no matter what the operating system. Add on top of that all of the good points about having a PC and all of the good points about not having a connected device, and suddenly it’s even better.
Naturally I don’t agree with your opinion on Carrypad (different people are happy with different tools in my opinion) but I thank you for your input. I also don’t agree with you on the difference between ‘tablet’ and ‘slate’ but lets move on to the core of your response. I want to focus one thing.
The requirement for Tablets – Up or Down?
You state that the requirement is as it always was. For me that still says ‘niche’ but you believe that a $300 tablet/slate with 7hrs life and Windows will change that. Do you think that is really possible? If so, when?
Chippy
I do not believe a Windows Tablet with 7hr battery life will be $300. First, the Windows OS needs to be paid for (compared to Android) and to run smoothly, has higher hardware requirements. I believe that as the tablet market starts to come into itself (mid to end of 2011) we will see what consumers are willing to pay for and if they actually want to be productive with their tablet. I see a Windows tablet only for those who need productivity…otherwise it is a waste. As things even out, I think we will see Windows based tablets in the $500 range.
I have to agree with Yu. Inking is key to the Windows Tablet. Unfortunately, inking has never been promoted or even explained well to the general consumer market. So I don’t know if Windows Tablets will succeed this year any more than they have in the past (for close to a decade).
However, I disagree with the need for a keyboard. While it is an occasional convenience, it carries perpetual weight and size. I started with the pure slate m1300 and rarely used (and never carried) the keyboard. When I got my OQO 02, I had no choice but to carry it but, again, I rarely used it. The most convenient thing was not they keyboard but the trackstick. I have now had the HP Slate for about a week and I have never hooked up or paired it with a keyboard and I don’t miss it at all.
As far as the form factor, my m1300 was a 12.1″ screen, my OQO had a 5″ screen, and my Slate has an 8.9″ screen. I would say that for general use the 8.9″ is about the largest I would want due to the size and weight. I would see no issue going to a 7″ screen. The advantage of the 5″ screen is pocketability but you do lose some productivity.
I use a laptop all day for work and at night for play. I am going to purchase the Asus EP121 because it is able to replace my laptop. If you recall, the EP121 is a hybrid 12″ netbook / tablet. For the work I do, I cannot be efficient on the Aton platform. The EP121 will either have a C2D CULV or (if the latest rumors are correct) an i5. This is a Windows tablet that will allow me to be productive during the day and “consume” on my time.
The HP tm2 is the same size but with a low end AMD graphics. Should be better for gaming.
True, however I would like the size and weight of “tablet only” when I am surfing the web or watching a movie or when I am traveling and don’t need the keyboard docking platform.
Right.
Forgot you were looking at a slate-only PC.
Personally I can’t use windows efficiently without a keyboard and will always look at convertible tablets like the up coming T580.
Thing is, with the torrent of tablets that’s been launched in 2010 (and the upcoming craze in 2011), until now, not one tablet was superior. Many have been simply average in terms of performance and battery life. And when it comes to something good, the price is mostly too high to consider over a netbook with better specs.
Introduce a solid form factor tablet, with at least 7+ hours battery life. Forget the Atom low end processors, a dual core Atom at minimum, 2GB RAM for handling Windows 7, a capacitive HD screen, ports for memory expansion along with video out and USBs. Now put that bundle under $1,000 and it will sell.
Seriously, under $1K is doable and will make a profit margin. How many companies are in market today globally… prices should go down.
No, the market needs more Windows UMPCs with physical keyboards and mice. Touchscreens are lame.
Agreed.
Until windows seriously upgrades the interface to be touch friendly, keyboard and mice are a staple for PCs.
Windows 7 is very touch friendly. What isn’t at this point are the non-Microsoft applications written for Windows, e.g. Google Chrome.
The on screen keyboard isn’t really touch friendly at all.
Also, even though windows 7 has flick scrolling, it doesn’t work as well as regular drag-and-scroll.
I also want to see more Windows based UMPCs with physical keyboards and mice. Even in a non-professional view, touch screen devices aren’t that great. I wouldn’t likely buy a tablet with a smartphone OS or some other dumbed down Linux disro and even less likely a tablet with any currently available Windows OS.
Too bad it seems I’m in the minority who thinks this way with so many tablets coming out.
Yup, any kind of touchscreen device for personal use with a screen greater than 5 inches is just not practical. The ones with 10-15 inch screens are just ridiculous. Just get a netbook/notebook. They’re much better in all aspects.
I agree, I would prefer a Windows UMPC, netbook, ultraportable, notebook over any of these large tablets. If the keyboard attachments for tablets sell well then it just means people actually really want a notebook and bought a tablet because of all the hype Apple has created (both intentionally and unintentionally).
I have been watching and waiting for a windows tablet but I am in no need of a another Windows (Mobile connected) device. I have owned IPAQ’s, Dell x50V and always liked the connected device functionality but the smartphones have replaced most of the connected device functionality.
I agree with a lot of Yulia points.
How come no one is talking of the AMD Zacate platform. I understand it is not available yet, but the battery life, performance and cost are in line with all the ‘missing’ features to today’s slates. I currently own a Lenovo s10-3t convertible netbook (Intel ATOM) and the performance, price have very little value (for me).
– Better Hardware. Zacate seems like a great improvement.
– Better native OS support for touch friendly applications.
– WHY ISN’T the WinCE applications like Windows Embedded Automotive 7 (FORD Sync) available for the Windows7 OS?
– Why isn’t there (better) touch support for Microsoft Streets and Trips.
– Windows Media Center 7 has touch support, but relies on a higher performing hw platform that is not available in most sub $1000 devices!
I am currently use the Lenovo Convertible Netbook (s10-3t) with StreetDeck (sw) and I really enjoy using the device (in tablet mode), except for the performance and battery life.
What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
– better performing HW. Better cpu, better graphics (AMD, NVidia or good, Not Intel). Better battery life (5+ hours, again AMD Zacate). Hybrid digitizer. Lower cost. Device variety would help.
– More SW. Improved native touch support for touch that doesn’t heavily rely on sw dev.
– dropping ATOM and using CULV or better performing CPU/GPU.
Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
– Yes. I would hesitate from marketing lower preforming devices (ie. ATOM based).
– Why do people think households/consumers are disimilar from verticle markets.
things are said, here and long time ago, year for year. i in the meantime now carry a hd dualcore netbook together with a roll able, lightweight digitizer board (same size as the netbook, did cost me some 20 bucks) and are able to use both worlds in parallel which actually corresponds to my normal daily working habits. for me personally it never had been the question “either or”, but both in parallel together. this answers also the win question. one system, same core set of applications bundled with device-specific additions to supplement the overall workspace. this also means hd resoltion on both devices (netbook and tablet are mandatory). this netbook/tv resoltion is insufficient for professional work on the long run.
forgot just to mention one thing: pens had been invented and used by mankind because they are in use by fingers much more precise tools than stubby fingertips. btw this knowledge is a few thousand years old and will not be changed only ’cause of some silly it-finger-fuzzies. fingers might be ok as long as there is only need for touch, dip, slide and switch. but that ain’t the end of a productive it/pc world. actually its only the beginning.
that there are a lot, if not a majority of users never (and i mean intellectually) able to use a modern pc with all its productive power and abilities (look eg at the average word user just to name an example) does not mean that these guys are right in every respect considering development and production of modern table devices. they only represent a certain segment of the market, for which current mobilephone/not-win tablet functionality might be ok.
RT @chippy: Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets? Great comments coming in @umpcportal http://bit.ly/e4QJIt -Srsly Great Comments
RT @chippy: Does The Market Need More Windows Tablets? Great comments coming in @umpcportal http://bit.ly/e4QJIt -Srsly Great Comments
Is the requirement for Windows 7 Tablets going up or down?
Down. There still is a window of opportunity but it is fast disappearing on the consumer side. On the Business side, it could be a viable form factor with a powerful enough processor and long enough battery.
Is the tablet form factor the best for a full handheld pc?
It is an alternative. (If you have Ford, does the world really need BMW?) Some will embrace this form factor especially in business. As a mobile sales tool it could be invaluable.
What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
A small screen and touch enabled interface or like the HP Slate 500, go with a stylus.
What are the major selling points of a Windows handheld PC?
You can run all your normal Windows Apps.
Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
Probably not. You can get top dollar from businesses but the consumer will be price sensitive. They should go after the business market and let it trickle down to consumers from there. (Isn’t that how the first PCs did it?)
I would indeed need Windows for about 3 prgs currently that can only run on x86 windows with two of them in quite often just access them from my mobile through VNC, and in fact that Win machine happens to be a VM (virtual machine).
Having said that and seeing how ARM based tablets are going past the 1Ghz mark now and how VM and cloud computing is so common I would wish there was a way to run a virtual x86 machine on ARM based devices once that’s achieved I no longer need any portable x86 based computer.
I think that Windows tablets will not make any success. I wouldn’t say that 1 year ago, but now the situation is completely different. Android has matured to a really useful system and beats Windows in many areas.
But in my opinion all tablets are useless. I don’t understand why would anyone want something like an iPad (or it’s Android, Meego or Windows clone). The form factor doesn’t allow real mobility. The form factor makes it uncomfortable to use and it’s heavy. A convertible notebook is a much better choice. The keyboard adds almost no weight and size over a tablet.
Personally I’m looking for a UMPC (5″ -7″ screen). I currently own a Viliv S5. It almost fulfills my needs but it could be smaller and more powerful. The Windows 7 is really slow an Atom CPU.
My dream device is a 6″ UMPC with case not much bigger then the display. But still with some HW buttons (Start, right mouse, enter and cursor keys). It would dual boot Android and Linux (MeeGo). This would allow me to use it as a simple multimedia device (using Android) or to get productive with full Linux (you can even run almost any Windows application using Wine). Imagine the SmartQ V5 with a much more powerful HW, that would be perfect.
– Is the requirement for Windows 7 Tablets going up or down?
100% agree that it is going down. IMO the only thing Windows has going for it TODAY is compatibility with software and devices. I’m ignoring the fact that 90% of the world is either too lazy or too dumb to use anything else simply because something new is unfamiliar.
– Is the tablet form factor the best for a full handheld pc?
I think the tablet is the best in theory, although there is not one implementation to date that lives up the the form factors potential. I envision eventually… The keyboard and mouse will take the same road as the household corded phone. Eventually I think even the most productive computing systems will be a combination of a touch UI with the next big thing, speech driven? A keyboard will be needed for devs and such for as far as I can see.
– What features are needed to increase the requirement of Windows handheld devices?
Windows in it’s current state has no place in mobile handheld devices. I’m referring to the desktop OS, not Windows Phone 7. It’s FAR to resource hungry, and MUCH to designed for 1995 ideals. Microsoft shows no interest in speeding up Windows relative to current available technology. As tech evolves, Windows eats up whatever resources given and sacrifices more elegant programming. I feel like Windows 98, 2000, worked just as slow on my 800MHz CPU 64MB RAM system back in the day, as Windows 7 runs on my 2GHz, 2GB, SSD netbook today. In both cases it’s simply miserable.
Ship Ubuntu 10.10 on a netbook and you have a winner over Windows ANY DAY!
– What are the major selling points of a Windows handheld PC?
The only selling point. Device support and application compatibility.
– Will marketing Windows Tablets as consumer devices be a good long term strategy?
I would rather see Microsoft design a fresh OS, with a completely new UI. After 20 years, it’s time to stop tweaking and revamping the same UI. If they still push Windows I think they will meet their match in Android. Android will take over the tablet community after they get more productivity apps I expect to see shortly after 3.0. If not, MeeGo might have a better chance.
Speaking of form factor, I think it is better a full keyboard, like that of the OCS1 or the N5.
On the other hand, in my opinion, the advantage of a hand sized device with 7 is productivity and versatility. Priorities for me are video playback and browsing the internet. So far I have not seen any other palm sized device (be it Iwhatever, android, etc) capable of playing ANY type of video without having to convert it. The second problem is browsing the internet, you need a damn application for every website you want to visit, application for youtube, facebook, etc. You can’t even watch streaming video from other sites other than youtube (using the application) maybe you can do it using and additional app, pray for it to work correctly. When a webpage loads you get many blank spaces and it won’t work as it was supposed to. That is why those devices are useless for me. On the other hand with a device like viliv S5, N5 you basically do not have any limitations. I even use my s5 to study for my certifications (installed visual certexam). You cannot even dream of installing a software like certexam in android or Iwhatever device. In short, if your device has windows installed, you pretty much have no limitations.
if you want something new like android and just want to reply some emails, you will be fine, if you want to do something more than that, you better get something with 7
AJ,
I am not really to fond of Android at this point (typing this on an iP4 & and you can see my take on the Android Galaxy tab here http://www.mobileer.me but I have to strongly disagree with your take on it. Like I said while I don’t think Android is mature yet, have you even had an Android device in your possession? They can certainly browse the web and stream any video format right from the browser even use the desktop edition of YouTube (albeit with 3rd party but free browsers). So what are you referring to?
I have a Motorola Droid 1 and browsing is not great. Anything that requires mouse overs, hovering elements (ie. logins for say Gizmodo or Disqus), AJAX and sites with heavy javascript most often doesn’t work or work very badly. Clicking tiny links surrounded by other links is a pain. The browser is significantly behind desktop browsers.
Android may have Adobe Flash support but even when my Droid is overclocked to 1.1 GHz, most videos don’t play smoothly. It’s even worse when there are multiple flash elements other than just the video on the same page.
Video file support is lacking. I have to convert most videos files (.mp4, .mkv, .avi, etc.) so that they play. Even phones like the Samsung Galaxy S with hardware acceleration for H.264 encoded videos doesn’t play many videos.
I also have a Viliv N5. The browsing experience is much better since it’s running Windows and desktop browsers after all. It has a mouse pointer which is useful and sometimes necessary for all the sites I visit. 720p and lower Adobe Flash videos play perfectly smooth (both full screen and windowed) on all the sites I’ve gone to. I can just throw any of my 720p .mkv, .mp4 and .avi files on there and they all play perfectly. No need to waste hours transcoding them especially if I just want to watch a few movies for say doing cardio at the gym, waiting at the doctor’s office, during a flight, waiting for the family to finish their shopping, etc.
My friend has an iPhone 4 and iPad and he has the exact same problems. The only difference is that there’s better 3rd party app support. Netflix app since they can’t play Microsoft Silverlight. Hulu app since they can’t play Flash. There’s the very buggy and soon (maybe already) to be pulled by it’s dev VLC video player to play some videos.
So, I agree that a Windows 7 or any desktop OS based device will give far more versatility for many users than any other device running a smart phone based OS. I like Android but it can’t compete with a full desktop OS.
Well, there you go with Linux flavors… (other than Android, because Linux is only an internal there from what I’ve read) I’m putting some hope into Meego there: An OS designed for Mobile device capability but in theorie compatible with desktop type software, though I’m not sure how far the support will actually go.
Anyway, we are stuck in a time of technological transition. While I somewhat revere my Keyboard for browsing (“Search as you type” as in firefox is VERY useful for pages often visited, were you know the names of the links you need, though it currently lacks support for anything beyond ordinary text, e.g. it can’t search button text) most arguments I’ve read here against mobile browsing are an issue of website design rather than of mobile browsing. If pages assume the existence of mouse and keyboard you’re likely lost, thats true, unlike you find a workaround. But so you are when you try to print with an old printer with only an analogous connector having only a modern notebook, whose builtin downward compatibility goes no further but plain old USB 1.1 (was there every 1.0 on the market?). Considering the importance of legacy code and concepts in many areas I suppose Meego will have the best chances to drive a technological transition.
Oh, and those App-Based “websites” are just some undesirable developement of web fragmentation, that has startet either from the necessity of workarounds or from attempts to remonetarize currently free-of-charge offerings, where companies (e.g. news papers) have failed to adapt there business modell and now try to recreate the old business concepts on modern devices. Not that I blame them for it, you just can’t finance EVERYTHING with ads.
The the bottom line here is, that once mobile devices are sufficiently important (meaning e.g. A web shop that doesn’t support them properly will suffer heavy losses, which I can’t see happening soon as long as people can grab a desktop PC or laptop for dealing with THAT specific page) there will be the necessary pressure to support them. I can however imagine current desktop input and output keeping primary importance because websites don’t fully support alternative concepts yet and websites not doing the transition (which costs money) because the home PC is still of primary importance. We’ll have to see, wether this cycle will be broken.
(By the way, my home cities bus schedule website doesn’t work properly on my mobile phone ^^’)
The current problem with win 7 slates is that they are meant to be all-in-one devices (because they have the power to be with a full OS) but often you feel like a traditional laptop would be better to use for many of these more involved tasks. The ipad and android slates on the other hand are usually more casual devices that the user moves to a laptop or mac for more involved tasks so don’t mind the limited functionality. It doesn’t make sense to have a win 7 slate and a win 7 laptop so currently these win 7 slates are only niche products.
However coming soon is what will change the game. I think the upcoming acer 10.1″ which is a slate that has a “turn me into a netbook” keyboard dock is the future for win 7 slates. Like a netbook but with a detachable touchscreen. You get to have the productivity of a netbook/laptop in the traditional form factor and when you want to sit back and surf the net slate mode you can easily detatch it and use it like a slate. You are never left feeling like what you are doing needs a mouse/keyboard because you use the slate for situations it is meant for … surfing the web, reading documents, note taking, annotation, games etc. and when you want to do more productive work you are not left wishing you had a proper keyboard and touchpad because you have one. Plus you don’t have the bulk and weight of a convertible when you want to sit back and do some sofa stuff.
Win 7 needs a better on screen keyboard though.
Active digitizers are great but will always only serve a niche market. Consumers don’t need them.
The detachable convertible device will appeal to the billions of netbook owners who can also now easily dabble in the slate world without thinking they have to have one or the other. A recipe for success and I can’t understand why the flood of devices hasn’t started yet!!! Can’t wait for 2011.
Why can’t any manufacturer release a 5″ or 7″ device with good amount of storage, able to play any video format without the need of converting it and able to browse internet like a desktop os can??? I think this is what most people want, at least this is the basic. archos seems to be close but you still need to pay extra (codecs) in order for the device to be able to do what it is supposed to do from factory and the browser still needs improvement.
…at least in my opinion, anything bigger than 7″ is too big, I actually prefer 5″ for portability which is what I need.
Another problem with devices running an os like android is that it is up to the manufacturer if you get the latest version of the OS. Your hardware might be perfectly capable of running the last OS version but, if the manufacturer just do not feel like releasing the update for you, then you are out of luck. It is similar to what happened with PDAs like the axim, not even the latest AKU was available for the users. On the other hand, using an UMPC, you have more options and flexibility regarding the OS version and, you can even do it yourserlf (no need to wait for someone in some company to create a file to update your device).