ViewSonic, Toshiba Update Tablet PCs

LAS VEGAS -- ViewSonic and Toshiba are both refreshing their Tablet PC lines here at the Comdex trade show, advancing a relatively new type of computer that has found some success in vertical markets but been slow to gain widespread use.

Also, Gateway has announced plans to offer a Tablet PC. Its M275 convertible product is expected to make its debut at the show here this week.

New Entries

ViewSonic's new V1250 is its first convertible Tablet PC, which means it has a swivel screen and can be used as both a traditional notebook or as a pen-based portable tablet. It has a 12.1-inch screen and uses Intel's Centrino chip package for wireless connectivity. It weighs just under 4 pounds, according to ViewSonic representatives. Pricing starts at $1795.

In tablet mode, the device has a small navigation pad that protrudes at the right of the screen with buttons for tasks like scrolling, toggling between applications, and launching Internet Explorer. It comes with a docking station that doubles as a battery charger.

Toshiba, meanwhile, is announcing its M200, which also has a 12.1-inch screen and uses Intel's Centrino chip. It comes with a novel docking station that lets the user tilt the machine to an upright position for use as a primary monitor, or fold it flat for use as a tablet.

Touch-screen buttons can be programmed to open different applications, and zooming software makes it easier to adjust the size of icons. Other features include an SGXA+ poly-silicon TFT display, Nvidia's GeForceFX Go 5200 graphics chip, and a base of 512MB of RAM, the company says. Pricing starts at $2499, according to a Toshiba spokesperson demonstrating the product here. It will go on sale Tuesday when the product is officially announced.

Tablets' Trek

Tablet PCs are based on a design from Microsoft and run a special version of Windows XP. The idea is to let users roam the office, home, or factory floor and carry the device like a clipboard, entering text with a stylus. Microsoft introduced the first prototypes in 2001 and had high hopes for their widespread use. Microsoft Chair Bill Gates once predicted that Tablet PCs would outsell desktop and laptop computers by 2005.

Adoption hasn't been as rapid as the company would have liked. Some analysts say use of Tablet PCs will be limited for the time being to vertical industries like health care, manufacturing, and finance.

"The biggest uptake continues to be in vertical industries--5000 of them were just sold to Healthcare South," says Tim Bajarin, president of technology consulting company Creative Strategies. "I don't see that changing any time soon."

The reason has to do partly with the availability of applications, as well as user interface elements that need to evolve, particularly speech recognition, Bajarin says. However, he believes Gates's overall vision for the popularity of pen-based computers has merit, and expects by the end of the decade their use will be far more widespread.

In his keynote speech at Comdex Sunday night, Gates highlighted the Tablet PC and looked forward to an upgrade to Windows XP Pro Tablet PC Edition code-named Lonestar. The update promises to offer better handwriting recognition support among other features, and is due in mid-2004 as a free update to current customers, he said.