GearWERKZ TechBlog

There are some people who just do not get it. Normally, this is not that big a deal because the only people they are capable of hurting is themselves. But in this day of blogging, everyone is a news reporter when it comes to tech, and therefore just about anyone can misinform the masses and have some influence on an otherwise unmolested market. This week, for some reason, there have been a slew of attacks on TabletPCs and digital inking in general. I have a lot of opinions on this sport and its growing popularity. One of these days I will write my own rant and get some of it off of my chest. For tonight, I am just going to comment on two, perhaps, critical reasons, that people just do not get it.

Follow up:

The first is this: handwriting recognition really does not matter. I almost never turn my handwritten notes into transcribed word documents. Most of the time, I ink on other Microsoft data artifacts, like my prof's PowerPoint Presentations of a week's lecture, or an email report from a colleague, or on the notes that came in the meeting notice. I also do not want to slow down my pace at taking notes in a meeting because I am concerned about the PC being able to transcribe my writing well. Additionally, I use a ton of symbols, shorthand, acronyms, and drawings that I can translate into things I understand, but will make no sense to a computer.

So a lot of the naysayers this week have been taking issue with TabletPCs because they do not recognize their hand-writing well. And I am saying it doesn't matter. At least half of us who use Tablets do not use this feature, or use it on a very limited basis. Even if it is true, it is not a sufficient reason to declare Tablets of zero value. How often does anyone transcribe their handwritten notes in a college course to a typewritten document? OK; so what does it matter? What I need is to have my notes in my digital notebook for my own personal reference. If I need someone else to read them, I will write a little neater, but I still am not going to transcribe them. I am going to send the notes, written in my own digital ink, directly to my team for consumption.

The second most prevalent argument that people have been lodging is cost. But the analyses are based on apples to oranges comparisons. No one has championed the use of a TabletPC as a desktop replacement for multimedia and gaming. People have championed a TabletPC platform for use as a business and work primary PC, or as a primary PC for a student. In those contexts, an analysis on their value-added must be based on the relative increases or decreases in productivity of the worker or student. In these contexts, Tablets must be compared to other business notebooks in the same class, or other laptops that are perceived as being suitable for student use.

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