Tablet PC Launches

The Tablet PC, a lightweight portable PC with a special version of Windows XP, a touch-sensitive screen with a pen for input, and wireless networking capabilties, became available worldwide on Nov. 7. Microsoft and Tablet PC OEMs will initially target mobile users in industries such healthcare and manufacturing, but Microsoft views it as an eventual replacement for notebook PCs. More than 40 OEMs and ISVs have signed on as Tablet PC partners, but some big names, such as Dell and IBM, are missing.

(For details on the Tablet PC’s history, features, and business strategy, see “Windows XP Tablet Edition Nears Delivery” on page 3 of the Sept. 2002 Update.)

Market: Busy Managers, Verticals

The initial marketing efforts for the Tablet PC will focus on two main markets:

“Corridor warriors.” This is Microsoft’s name for business people—particularly executives and managers—who spend most of their time at their office (rather than traveling like so-called road warriors), but who are constantly moving between meetings instead of working at a desk all day. Microsoft and its Tablet PC partners believe that these workers will find the Tablet PC attractive because it lets them jot down notes and annotate documents directly on their PCs, rather than rudely typing away during meetings or spending unnecessary effort writing notes on paper and later transcribing them. To increase the device’s appeal to these users, Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies Group (which created the Reader software for publishing electronic books) is working with publishers such as the Financial Times, Forbes Magazine, and The New Yorker to make these publications available to Tablet PC users in 2003.