Free Consumer Bundle for Tablet PC

A set of free downloads extends the digital media capabilities and adds other entertainment features and interface enhancements to Tablet PCs, portable computers that feature a touch-sensitive screen, a stylus for entering data as “digital ink,” and a special-purpose OS, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. So far, Microsoft has marketed the Tablet PC strictly as a business product, but the Experience Pack for Tablet PC has a consumer focus, suggesting that Microsoft is trying to tap strong consumer demand for notebook PCs (particularly in Europe) to build sales of Tablets. IDC and Gartner both estimate that fewer than 700,000 Tablet PCs were sold in 2004-that’s less than 2% of the 45.9 million notebooks sold (according to research firm iSuppli).

The Experience Pack includes the following applications:

• Media Transfer, for transferring digital audio, video, and photos from another PC to the Tablet over a home network (the other PC must have Windows Media Connect software, which is also available