Software help desk

Dell’s XT2 XFR Tablet PCI was in the New York City audience in November 2002 when Bill Gates strode onto the stage and introduced the world to the modern version of the tablet computer. With him were celebrities, including Rob Lowe and Amy Tan, and the CEOs of a handful of manufacturing partners, such as HP and Panasonic. Gates and Co. talked about tablet PCs as the future of computing. Windows XP Tablet Edition, as it was called, relied on an active digitizer that interacted with a pen-sensitive screen to provide input.

This hardware was combined with a suite of software so the digitizer a fancy name for a mouse in the shape of a pen could interact with on-screen buttons, as well as write text.

Windows XP Tablet Edition was updated in 2005, but the revisions were minor. More than seven years since that launch, Windows-based tablet computers haven’t evolved into much.

The form factors are mostly the same, even though touch technology has leapt forward in capabilities. The new paradigm of computing that Gates spoke of never unfolded.

At least, not yet. Apple is re-imagining the tablet category with its iPad. By taking a multitouch approach, Apple has opened up a whole new way to interact with its device.

Pages: 1 2