Digital Home Thoughts: Tablets Will Not Solve All Problems

"I explained that this ThinkPad wasn’t the only one that could do this. The new HP 2740p has a touch option too. He had no idea that such technology existed, and sadly this is not an unusual case. One of the obstacles to adoption of the Tablet PC has always been lack of knowledge about them, especially with so-called consultants like this doctor used when he set up his practice. He’s spent the past three years lamenting the big bucks spent on Tablets he didn’t need."

With the slate tablet being the hot item right now, it is refreshing to see someone provide another take on what has been done with the industry. The case examples used by James Kendrick are interesting, and I agree that tablets may not have been the ideal choices for them, but I really want to drive home one major point is that with new form factors or procedures, there needs to be enforcement, or at least encouragement of these new features. People resist change and every new concept or set of procedures needs to fight tooth and nail to show that they can be superior. I am ashamed to admit that it took me months to get used to tabbed browsing, but in my defense it was mostly because of muscle memory using alt-tab to switch between browser windows. I am trying hard to make use of more slate and tablet oriented tools such as OneNote, but it is proving to be challenging to say the least. Slates may face the same problem, though the leap will not be anywhere near as great. The most difficult challenge will be on the development side, to make sure that what people see on slates, either through the web, or through custom applications, properly takes advantage of the new interface.