This is the first in what could be a series of articles dealing with some of the many concerns skeptics and PC users in general have about the Tablet PC. I hope this will help you come to grips with how real each of these concerns is. Some are valid to some extent, while others are completely false. Well enough small talk, on to the article:

A couple of the many concerns people have had with the Tablet PC have been the length of the battery life, and the speed of the processor. Today the typical Tablet PC, when compared to a modern laptop, has slightly more of the first, and slightly less of the second. Many have felt that this ratio must improve before wide scale adoption can happen. I agree to some extent, these can be improved, but I don’t agree that wide scale adoption won’t happen before they do.

Let’s take processor speed first: Tablet PCs today have speeds ranging from 800Mhz to 1.3Ghz. For normal business uses (word processing, web browsing, etc…) this is plenty of speed. Only in the last 6-8 months or so have any laptops come out with higher speeds, most companies are still behind this mark by a year or two. Now don’t get me wrong, there are certain applications that will require more speed. Things like 3D modeling, game programming, and high powered video editing will always require more. But I for one would not want to do 3D modeling on a 10” screen anyway! Desktop computers will always be around for these and other purposes. But we must understand, the Tablet PC is not targeted towards these markets, and I don’t expect it to get adopted there. Tablet PC adoption will be taking place in the business professional and educational markets, where these type of high-powered applications don’t get much, if any, use.

Now let’s take battery life: To me this is one area of the Tablet PC that can actually use some improvement, the longer the battery lasts the better. However even having said that, there are ways to get have enough battery power to last. Let’s take the HP TC1000 for example; battery life on it is close to 5 hours. Now I don’t know about you, but I think 5 hours should be plenty of battery life for normal use. Business professionals who travel back and forth between meetings are most likely rarely are away for more than 3 or 4 hours. Now I will admit that different professions have different definitions of “normal” use. Doctors and Nurses for example are out traveling the halls of the hospital all day need large amounts of battery life, while a programmer who sits at his desk almost all day doesn’t require as much.

For these cases where 5 hours may not enough, HP has developed a way to “hot swap” the battery. With this you can exchange a drained battery for a charged one while in standby mode, thus allowing you to pick up right where you left off. One of my thoughts of how this could work is a “battery bay” if you might call it that. Doctors use their tablet until it gets low, the go swap out for a charged one and plug the drained one in. It would take a minute at most, and would allow for almost unlimited battery life. The same concept could be applied to students, salesmen, etc.

Now I know there will always be skeptics, but to me Tablet PCs are finally here to stay. The right technology is in place to allow virtually unlimited usage and speed is high enough that we don’t have to wait on the information we need.

I hope this article has helped you understand some of the reality of the speed and battery issues. If this article gets a good reception, I plan to tackle other traits of the Tablet PC that people are concerned about. If you have any feedback, feel free to post it in the forums or e-mail me.