History of the Tablet PC

The Tablet PC quietly turned 5 years old recently, at least I don't believe I saw anything from Microsoft celebrating it.  Sierra Modro of GottaBeMobile has penned a great history of the Tablet PC that covers it from day one to taking a look at what might be on the horizon for the future.  It's a great read and worth checking out.  What still amazes me to this day is the lack of promotion for the platform, now a mature five years old.  At least once a week in my work someone looks at my Tablet PC as I use it in slate mode and asks me "what is that?".  That's pretty sad.

Comments

[Aura Mae]

James,
I had a client complaining to me because her child's middle school switched to tablet PCs this year and she thought the expense was exorbitant. I calmed her down, telling her how great inking and One Note are, but I really think that cost continues to be the barrier that keeps the general public from embracing the tablet. Prices of notebook computers have dropped so much that it is hard to explain to Joe Consumer why he should pay an extra grand for a tablet.

[B]

It's a shame you cut out all the tablets that came before Tablet PC Edition. I mean, come on, tablet pcs are a lot older than 5 years. I myself remember one, that happened to be the first tablet with a built in cd-rom drive, it came with windows 95 on a <100mHz processor and a 12 bit color screen.

[Devon]

I think touchscreen credit card swiper machines are to blame! I've had so many people scoff at my tablet because they immediately think of the horrible signatures they're familiar with at the grocery store. That's the public mindset of what inking is.

[Sierra Modro]

Hey Kevin - glad you liked my history lesson! It was fun to go back over the changes in the last 5 years. I still miss WriteAnywhere...

B - I did mention the older tablets, but they are tablets with a little t, not Tablet PCs. The "Tablet PC" was officially born with the release of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 5 years ago. Which is what we are celebrating.

That said, I do think the other, older tablets had a lot going for them. I used quite a number of pen computers prior to Tablet PCs.

[James Kendrick]

Hey Sierra, that would be James. :)

[Sierra Modro]

Oops!! I could have sworn I checked who wrote that one. And here I was trying to thank you. Thank you, James, and glad you liked the article. It really was fun to research.