Windows 7 Still Targets Tablet PCs

Since the 2002 launch of Windows XP Tablet Edition as a special Windows XP edition that supported a touch-sensitive screen, Microsoft has promoted each subsequent release of its flagship Windows client as the ideal tablet OS. This was reinforced in 2005, with the follow-on version Windows XP Tablet PC edition that offered improved handwriting and text recognition. Although Windows Embedded Compact (formerly Windows CE) has been used as an OS for some handheld devices, Microsoft still sees its latest Windows client as its best OS for tablets, despite the growing popularity of a new generation of lightweight, long-battery-life tablets, such as the Apple iPad.

Tablet PCs Versus Tablets

Interest in tablets has risen with the arrival of Apple’s iPad, which delivers a different set of capabilities for a different set of tasks than those targeted by tablets running Microsoft’s flagship OS to date.

The first tabletlike computers to run a version of Windows were handheld PCs, which were based on Windows Embedded Compact (CE at the time) and produced by OEMs in the mid-1990s. Since 2002, Microsoft has defined a Tablet PC as a fully functional PC running the current version of Windows but geared for input using a stylus (“digital ink” or handwriting recognition), touch, and speech recognition. A Tablet PC is suitable both for consuming information, such as Web browsing, reading an electronic book, or watching videos, and creating information using a stylus, touch, voice, or a built-in keyboard or camera. Tablet PCs have seen some adoption for vertical mobile business applications—for example, employees such as real estate appraisers, insurance adjusters, and medical staff may use them to collect data in the field.