Nathaniel snags the “Tablet” name on MSN Spaces and writes: “My friend Joel says: I’d like to put forth a thesis, and I would love to have it challenged: Tablet PCs are the ideal computing platform for engineering and architectural professionals.”
I agree 80%. I think all engineers should consider a Tablet. It works extremely well for me. I do almost 100% of my development and design work on my Tablet. A Tablet is my primary machine. But it’s important not to lose sight of where the production occurs and revenue generated for many others.
I wouldn’t recommend to my brother, an architect, that he use his Tablet as his primary work machine. He’s so efficient with AutoCad and the mouse/keyboard that he can leverage all the speed of a souped up workstation. Current Tablets would slow him down. They are simply slower. However, he does own a Tablet and he does use it a lot–especially at home. But when he’s making money he uses his workstation and when he’s communicating with others remotely he’s using his Blackberry and/or Treo. If there was more of the right type of software he might use the Tablet more at work. Yeah, he could use his Tablet for meetings, but I guess since he bought the Tablet out of his own pocket, he keeps it at home most of the time. I have heard though that his office is purchasing Tablets for a few of the employees. So maybe his Tablet habits will change.
Similarly, a EE (working in a corporate environment) is probably going to be using a non-Microsoft platform, because that’s where the leading apps are. They might use a Tablet as their mobile machine, but in terms of a primary system, it’ll be tough. Down the road we may see this change–I’m betting it will.
Don’t get me wrong. I still recommend Tablets for most engineers. And even for those that must labor at a workstation, I can definitely see Tablets as a very useful second mobile machine for many of the reasons Nathaniel points out.
