Vendors Back Tablet PC

Five major PC manufacturers are working toward a 2002 rollout of the Tablet PC, a wireless-equipped, clipboard-sized device with a built-in touchscreen that can accept input from a stylus, as well as from a detachable keyboard and mouse. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates says, “We see this as a major milestone and one that we’re rallying partners around—software developers, peripherals developers—to make this really drive the portable market next year.”

The immediate market for the Tablet PC appears to be companies like Microsoft itself that have wireless LANs; the Tablet PC could offer an easier-to-carry alternative to laptops that’s also less obtrusive for tasks such as note-taking in meetings. Over the next five years, however, the Tablet PC’s mission is to expand into markets resistant to conventional laptops. It will exploit new input technologies (speech, handwriting recognition) and the growth of wireless LANs to give customers a more mobile, easier-to-use device for getting e-mail, surfing the Web, and playing audio and video.