I’ve been a user of Tablet PC’s for about 5 years now. Yes, I had one of the really bad version 1.0 Tablets.
For those of you who don’t know what a Tablet PC is, essentially it’s a laptop that you can write on with a pen. Some of the bonuses that come with using a Tablet PC include:
- Digital note taking
- The ability to use a computer where it’s inappropriate to use a laptop (meetings, conferences, events)
- Handwriting recognition
- Digital sketching
- Wow factor (Wow, what’s that?).
The interesting thing is that the Tablet PC kind of slipped in the back door for a number of reasons. We still experience people’s shock and awe on a daily basis when using our Tablet PC’s because they’ve never seen one before.
Because Tablet PC’s have gone largely unnoticed so far in Australia, about 2 years ago I was able to register tabletpc.com.au and put together a quick website to sell Tablet PC’s. This was akin to buying waterfront land in Coffs Harbour 20 years ago.
Well, the heat is really on now for Tablet PC’s. This month HP launched a new range of laptops headlined by the HP Compaq 2710p Tablet PC. Major brands such as Toshiba, Lenovo (formerly IBM), Asus, LG, Motion Computing, Panasonic and Fujitsu all have Tablet PC’s on the market in Australia.
With the launch of Next G and the phase out of Telstra’s old CDMA countrywide network, mobile broadband is really taking off (I’m actually using a Telstra Next G mobile broadband card to post this blog from Noosa!). Mobile broadband makes a lot of sense with a Tablet PC.
Tablet PC’s will be the biggest change to mobile working since the mobile phone. There couldn’t be a better time to be involved with marketing Tablet PC’s. The question is, what will be the next big thing in the Internet land rush for me? It might be more obvious than you think…
About Brett Gilbertson