Another self-paced Tablet demo falls short

Mike Wendland takes an Acer C300 for a test drive at home and then declares after a couple weeks that Tablet PCs aren’t there yet.

It appears that his primary objection is the weight. The Acer C300 is about 6 pounds. Since he was primarily using the Tablet PC for reading, too bad he didn’t have the NEC LitePad which is only 2.2lbs. There are other Tablet models in the 3 to 4 pound range too.

His other concern is that he hasn’t seen any Tablets around. This sounds eerily like the Alice and Bill post not too long ago. The logic goes: I travel a lot. I haven’t seen any Tablets. Therefore Tablets aren’t worth it.

I cringe when I read stuff like this, but you know what? There is a legitimate concern here.

I have a neighbor whose daughter started college this past year and this is exactly why she didn’t want to consider a Tablet for school. She didn’t want to stick out as a techno-geek. She bought a laptop big and heavy enough that she leaves it at her dorm room. It’s intentionally too heavy to take to class. People are style conscious and look around to see what others are doing.

Style is an elusive thing I don’t do very well at, but I can appreciate the other part of the adoption problem. Often what’s needed is someone to show them very specifically how the Tablet can help them–no grandiose “solves world hunger” approaches. It’s more cookbook style and very personable.

The first step is understanding what the person is doing and interested in and how the Tablet can help them specifically. In the case of my neighbor’s daughter, I’ve passed along a copy of OneNote to her. We’ll see how this goes.

In Mike’s case, he says he was using the Tablet for reading. But let’s also scan through some of his prior posts and articles to understand his interests. Hmmm. Doesn’t take much to find that he has a penchant for things Apple. (Take this article about a music Tablet, for instance, and what does he like the most? A G4 with an iPod.) Plus he likes simple and I’m guessing under $500 things. And like many of us, he’s got a strong interest in trying to make education better. Lastly, I think he tends to focus on tech for the home-slash-average user. So combining all this, here’s how I might demo a Tablet for someone like Mike:

I’d start with a Toshiba M200. Yeah it’s pricey, but I’m guessing that as an Apple admirer, other things will convince him that the value is there. I’m also picking a convertible, because as someone who makes his living writing I’m guessing he really, really needs the keyboard. But as a backup, I’d have a Motion M1400 with a view anywhere display, because he might appreciate it’s style and top-notch display (focusing on displays is another trait common to many Apple advocates).

With Tablets in hand, now comes the most important part: picking the software.

Both of these Tablets come with OneNote. This will be a good companion for his research and web surfing. While on the couch he can drag and drop quotes from blogs/etc and automatically have links to their locations recorded for him. And since OneNote autosaves, there’s no accidentally losing all your work if the battery goes dead or you forget to save. This is a big usability feature for the average person. OneNote just works.

On top of all this, if he decides to use OneNote at work while interviewing someone, he can record their audio using the array microphones built into either Tablet and have the audio sync with his typing or handwriting on playback. He may find handwriting in portrait mode a bit more unobtrusive or useful if he has to stand up at the same time. But lets assume he’s not thinking in terms of work here–back to the home scenario.

Next up I’d show him MathPractice. People tend to “get it” when they see MathPractice. The program is simple and everyone can appreciate the mechanics of learning math. Even if they have a personal bias against ink, they usually say, “Oh yeah. I see how ink would be good for my kids.” If I was demoing on my machine, I might at this point bring up some photos of my niece using MathPractice–and pass the Tablet (in portrait mode) over to him so he can see. When friends and family come over I often share photos or webpages or whatever by passing the Tablet around.

Since Mike is interested in the home user I’d bring up Skype and possibly MSN Messenger. Both programs are free and both programs are great Tablet friendly applications. When showing Skype, I usually see who’s online and ring them for a quick conversation. It’s doubly interesting if the other person is overseas. The quality is usually good and everyone quickly appreciates the fact that the call was “free.” I tell them how sometimes I call my family and friends and just leave Skype on for hours at a time. There’s no need to talk all the time. It’s just a way to share some time with someone far away. And, here again, I might be doing this standing up or I might walk around while having the Skype conversation or I might pass the Tablet around. The freedom that the Tablet gives Skype feels right. Now, if I’ve demoed Skype I usually point out that there’s MSN Messenger and it can do more, such as support a webcam and ink.

Usually by this time it’s all getting to be a bit much. So I sum up by pointing out that it’s important to realize that a Tablet PC runs all the software that a standard Windows machine runs. That means Mike can still use all his same programs for his mp3 files, movies, or work applications.

After all of this, Mike still may not like the Tablet. That’s fine. It may not be time for him. Of course, that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to wait.