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HardwareTablet PCBill Gates: Tablet sales continue to grow

Bill Gates: Tablet sales continue to grow

Engadget interview with Bill Gates.

Gates mentions that Tablet sales have been at “record” levels over the last three months. I can see why. The prices are dropping. Now we just need the Tablets in the stores and in the hands of system builders. Actually, I’d put system builders at the top of the priority. If Microsoft wants to see Tablet numbers it’s got to get them into system builders. These people cross over from the currently focused on professional markets as well as the prosumer market–both who are potential Tablet customers. BestBuy, CompUSA and the like will make more sense when there’s a $599 Tablet. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth it to pay for exposure on these super-retailers’ store shelves, it’s just that the gain probably isn’t going to come from there. This isn’t to say this is all Microsoft’s fault. The OEM/ODMs so often are willing to sell direct, that they have cannibalized their own channels. The Tablet is not benefiting from this.

And in terms of Bill Gates’ strategy of having more people using Tablets on airplanes, this all sounds like the old plan. Airport marketing was an original Tablet marketing strategy and I don’t think it did all that well. The problem? Too many people read about the marketing approach and too few saw it, leaving people with a negative impression of the Tablet. Yeah, he’s right that if you pull out a Tablet on a plane–or just about anywhere for that matter–it’s often a great conversation starter. And even if a conversation doesn’t start up, people do notice.

For mainstream adoption, Tablets need to get in schools. Professors have been leading the way. This is good. But style conscious students are being more cautious. Partly because of prices. Partly because they have great alternatives. Partly because they don’t want to stick out. It deserves repeating again, a great move would be to remove the price issue for students entering school. Give every single graduating high school student a $300 Tablet coupon. Of course, if a program like this was launched, where would the students purchase their Tablets?!

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve come to believe that much of the future Tablet growth will rely on Intel’s technological and pricing advancements. Yes, Tablet software is very important. But Intel and it’s marketing will make it so.

Loren
Lorenhttp://www.lorenheiny.com
Loren Heiny (1961 - 2010) was a software developer and author of several computer language textbooks. He graduated from Arizona State University in computer science. His first love was robotics.

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  1. Why doesnt someone come up with a tablet powered by one of these new $5 40MHz picmicro or AVR or ARM chips? I know these chips are at least more powerful than a 486.

  2. Now that you mentioned it, I bet someone out there is paging through app notes to figure out if it’s feasible.

    Can you imagine a $50 dollar Tablet? Hmm. How many would I buy and how would I use them? Two, three, four? Very interesting.