Edited by author 11-07-2003 08:50 AM
The president of Tablet maker Acer is quoted at <http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5095467.html>; - I don't know if you got that story, who wants to go hear businessmen whine anyway - that the extra cost of Tablet hardware over a notebook is up to $60, including the OS it's $200... you put the cost of digitiser at $150, keyboard and trackerpad don't make up the difference, maybe the Tablets are missing other parts (large screen and DVD, and a hot processor). Many Tablets /have/ keyboards. But by the arithmetic, Microsoft is charging at least $140 /more/ (after the retail chain scale-up) to manufacturers for the personal operating system (well, XP Pro, but a Tablet is purely a personal PC) that happens to have unsatisfactory* speech recognition and handwriting thrown in. *Processor speed is a lot of the problem. That's cureable, but not quickly.

I intend to buy one anyway and I'm using one at work, because I have this RSI-type problem with my wrists. The TDV Vison one, which has gone to ground but logically might show up at Comdex, looks cute if it works. But I grudge those extra MS-bucks.

Third-paty software doesn't matter. There is no killer app, except for a screen that you work on with a pen. Pen on screen is the killer app.
.
.