British schoolchildren could find themselves at the forefront of new technology, following today's worldwide launch of Microsoft's Tablet computers. They will be able to write just the way they used to with pencil and paper or chalk and slate, but the PC will recognise their handwriting and convert it into text.
Three British schools have been trying the new-style PCs supplied by RM, the UK market leader in educational computing. Other hardware suppliers joining Microsoft at the London launch event included Acer, from Taiwan, Fujitsu-Siemens, the German-Japanese combination, Toshiba, from Japan, and Compaq, which is now part of Hewlett-Packard. All the systems run a new Tablet PC Edition of Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
Neil Laver, Microsoft's Tablet PC product manager, claims this is "the next step forward in the evolution of the computer. It's not just a new gadget, this is technology for everybody." Tablet PCs can be used in situations where desktops and notebooks cannot: when users are standing up and walking around. This is why other trialists have included the Nationwide and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.
The Nationwide's head of business futures, David Followell, says the Tablet PC "allows us to interact with the customer in a much more natural way. Bring on the comfortable chairs and a couple of sofas!"
Tablet PCs have been around for at least a decade without sales taking off outside niche markets, such as the healthcare and transportation industries. The optimism about reaching a wider market has been stimulated by dramatic improvements in the handwriting recognition software, and the exploding popularity of Wi-Fi (802.11) wireless networks. Wi-Fi "hotspots" are now being opened in hotels, airports, stations, and coffee bars including the Starbucks and Costa Coffee chains.
Microsoft and the hardware manufacturers also hope the new form factor will stimulated sales in a PC market that has seen its first year-on-year decline since the 1980s. Mel Taylor, managing director of Fujitsu-Siemens in the UK, said he expected tablet-style PCs to grow from 10% to 30% of his company's PC sales.
However, only a handful of PC manufacturers out of 10,000 participated in Microsoft's launch: IBM, which created the IBM PC, and Dell, the world's biggest PC manufacturer, were among the noticeable absentees. In the long term, the Tablet PC could certainly benefit some users, including schoolchildren, but it is not going to take over the market in a hurry.
