Tablet PC Test Drive

I was in a store tonight and gave a Tablet PC a test drive for the first time. In fact it was the first Table PC that I've seen.

This model was a "swivel" convertable. The hardware seemed fine. I like the concept, but...

The software sucks. Badly. Really, the pen interface seems slapped on top of the typical mouse-based Windows. And the total experience is *horribly* schizophrenic. The pen/tablet experience is trying to get along with its mouse-based alter ego, but they just seem uncomfortable with each other. Their like relatives who see each other once every year or so. They have something in common, but no deep understanding of each other.

Kind of sad that we're expected to get excited about this in 2004. Hardware vendors who've invested in the Tablet PC should be terribly disappointed that Microsoft has not been able to invest what is needed to do the job right.

I'd probably pay more for a Tablet PC than a notebook, but not $1000 more. But I'd certainly not pay anything at all for the product currently on the shelves. Egads. New level of bad.