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Tablet
PC Summit Summary
By Bill Mann
The Tablet
PC Summit was held in Danvers, MA on Monday, May 19. The event was actually
a pre-show workshop at the PlanetPDA show, which ran Tuesday through Thursday.
Motion Computing sponsored the Summit.
Having never
been to a pre-show workshop like this, I wasn't sure what to expect when
I arrived. What I found was a big room with 30-40 people, and some useful
and interesting presentations on various aspects of the Tablet PC scene.
The presenters
included Kim Kasee, Vice President of Marketing at Motion Computing, Professor
Perry Lowe from Bentley College, Joe Harris, Director of Product Marketing
at NEC, Naila Seif, Director Tablet PC Solutions, Mobile Computing at
HP, Fritz Switzer, Chief Ablet (no, that is not a typo) Officer at the
abletFactory, and Adam Feinberg, Community Manager at tabletpctalk.com.
In addition
to listening to the presenters, I got to spend some good time talking
to Fritz Switzer (and his capable new Product Manager Casey), Rob Bushway,
President of Zoe Technologies, and TabletPCBuzz's own Dennis Rice, who
when he isn't stirring things up in the Buzz forums, is a Consultant/Systems
Engineer at SalianTech. It was greet these folks and all the others who
took the time to say hi and just chat about Tablet PCs.
For me, there
were two particularly interesting bits of information here. One is that
much of the real action in Tablet PCs is still invisible. There are apparently
a number of major corporations doing pilot programs with Tablet PCs, that
don't want to talk publicly about them yet. This implies that in the next
year or so, if the pilots are successful, sales of Tablet PCs could really
take off, with corporations buying them by the thousands.
Perhaps the
most interesting aspect of the event was an exchange between Dennis and
the presenters at the end of the day. Throughout the day, the subject
of the slow economy and low IT spending kept popping up. What Dennis pointed
out was that, at the same time manufacturers are unhappy with their sales
figures, individuals and small purchasers can't even find Tablet PCs to
try or buy.
Suggestions
that came back for individuals that want to try (and maybe buy) Tablet
PCs were:
- " Visit
Gateway stores. The Motion machines are available in most or all of
the stores and the sales staff is competent to demonstrate them and
talk to you about them. "
- Look on
eBay. There are actually Tablet PCs for sale there. "
- Visit
infocater.com. They have several flavors of Tablet PC in stock and ready
to ship.
I'm looking
forward to next year's event. It'll be fascinating to see what changes
a year brings to the Tablet PC scene.
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