Inspirational Technology

One more Tablet PC Thought

One other thing to mention about the tablet PC is that when they were first announced I predicted that they would be a huge failure. Now that they're out, well quite honestly I still think they're going to fail. Even if I buy one and end up loving it, I'll still think they're going to fail. Why? There's no buzz.

I've spent a lot of time researching these things on the web and going around to various stores in town to try to get my hands on different models. So far the only Tablet PC I've actually seen is the Toshiba. Comp USA didn't even have the things on display and actually couldn't find their demo model of the Viewsonic to show it to me. From what I've seen there is basically zero interest in these things outside of a very small, hardcore geek community and the usual vertical applications. No one in the various stores I've been to knew anything about them. No special displays, no marketing materials, nothing. Even the incredibly stupid portable display things are getting more shelf space then the Tablet PCs are. Both Comp USA and Frys had large end of isle displays for those stupid things, but nothing at all for the tablets.

I saw something on another blog, unfortunately I forget where, that said something like Tablet PCs have gotten boring because they've become mainstream and they're not bleeding edge anymore. Sorry, I call BS. I think Tablet PCs are boring now because quite simply nobody cares about them. An eight month old product that is truly exciting with the expectations associated with Tablet PC should have much more buzz associated with it. I'm sorry to say it, but the experience I've had from shopping for this thing is the experience of shopping for a product that nobody is buying.