Tablets: Waiting For More Smart Software

By Microsoft's standard, the Tablet PC is a flop, with sales of computers

using the pen-ready version of Windows XP in the hundreds of thousands, not

millions as forecast by Chairman William H. Gates III two years ago. Today, the

Tablet is stuck mostly in such vertical markets as insurance and health care.

Yet it remains one of Microsoft's most interesting experiments.

The Tablet, introduced in 2002, gives users the ability to write directly on

the screen with an electronic stylus, so they can work without a keyboard or

mouse. I have been trying out a new M1400 Tablet ($1,999) from Motion Computing

and Microsoft's just-released Tablet PC 2005 software. The M1400 is a

slate-type Tablet, meaning its normal use is tucked in the crook of your arm

with no keyboard. (A variety of docking arrangements also make it usable on a

desktop.)

In Microsoft Office, for example, you can scribble comments on a Word

document or take longhand notes in a program called OneNote and use limited

handwriting recognition to turn your scrawl into text. With the original Tablet

software, you also had to spend a lot of time tapping out letters on an

on-screen keyboard for such chores as entering an appointment in Outlook. That's

now less necessary. A panel that converts handwriting to text pops up when

needed. And a new option lets the Tablet recognize one character at a time.

Still, I think Microsoft is hobbling the Tablet's future by marketing it

primarily as a way to take notes on a screen. Paper and pen are perfectly good

for that. And the convenience of storing notes as "digital ink" isn't

worth having to carry a three-pound slate that gets toasty in your arm and

depends on a battery that is good for no more than four hours.

The tablet's greatest potential lies in its ability to perform feats that

cannot be done by typing on conventional laptops. For example, a major

impediment to using computers for a lot of mathematical work has been the

difficulty of entering math notation from a keyboard. MathJournal from xThink

($198, $98 for students) lets you write on the screen in conventional math

notation. It parses the input and performs sophisticated calculations, including

equation-solving, symbolic integration, and vector operations.

SketchBook Pro from Alias Systems ($179) lets you create complex freehand

drawings directly on the screen. If you have ever tried to draw something with a

mouse, you can guess how much simpler and more accurate it is to use a pen

directly on the display. On the Tablets, the stylus becomes a vast array of

virtual pens, pencils, and brushes. And, just like the real things, the

electronic tools respond to how hard you press. Systems that allow pen-based

drawing on external displays have been around for a while, but their complexity

and expense limited their use to professional artists. Although not designed for

the Tablet, AutoSketch ($129) from Autodesk, a technical drawing program, is

easier to use with a pen than a mouse.

The bulk of Tablets sold have been "convertible" models that build

Tablet functions into a clamshell laptop with a display that can rotate. I find

the slate design more natural because it's lighter and easier to use on the

go. The Motion M1400 is clever, featuring a fingerprint reader that can end the

tedious chore of entering passwords with the stylus, and an optional combination

keyboard and stand ($130) that doubles as a cover for the slate.

Now we need better software. Just about any program that allows for direct

manipulation of objects on the screen, from entering notes in a musical score to

creating relationships among items in a database, can profit from the Tablet's

unique abilities. With more programs such as MathJournal and SketchBook, the

Tablet could reach its potential.

In BusinessWeek. Copyright 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc