Microsoft launches tablet PC drive
Published: 07 Nov 2002 17:01 GMT
Hoping to write a new chapter in the saga of pen-based computing, Microsoft on Thursday officially unveiled Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.
Executives representing more than 20 companies manufacturing devices using the software joined Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates here for the launch. Acer, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba are among the companies making the new tablet PCs, which are similar to notebook PCs. Most of the devices let users input data with a stylus in addition to or instead of a keyboard.
Microsoft and other software developers, including Autodesk, Corel and Groove, have either updated existing programs or released new applications to support the Tablet PC operating system. Microsoft, for example, released an update to Office XP that supports the Tablet PC software's handwriting and "inking" technologies.
More sophisticated enhancements will come with Office 11 sometime next year.
"The shipment of the next release of Office 11 will go even further in support for ink. There's lots of work being done to support that," Gates said.
Manufacturers appear to have taken a conservative approach with this generation of tablets. The products are geared more for vertical markets, such as insurance or health care, and niche uses, such as workers collaborating on projects.
Designs vary from Fujitsu's slate to Toshiba's convertible, which looks more like a typical notebook but "converts" into a tablet. The majority of designs are clearly focused on businesses and not consumers.
Analysts have offered dim projections on early sales. Gartner says that portables running the Tablet PC operating system would account for a mere 1 percent -- or about 425,000 units -- of worldwide notebook shipments next year. IDC predicted US shipments of 575,000 tablets out of an estimated 13 million notebooks.
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