I was flipping through channels on TV, when something caught my attention on the Home Shopping Network: a Tablet PC. To my surprise the HSN was showcasing the Gateway Tablet PC.
Overall they did a pretty good job. At first I wasn’t too sure. The product intro started out pretty low key. Even though they called the Tablet a Tablet, they focused on the standard notebook features for a good ten minutes. In addition, they were boasting about $500 worth of included apps. None of which were Tablet specific.
About the time I was convinced that they didn’t know what they had in front of them, they threw in a twist. Yep, they twisted the display around and put the notebook into Tablet mode. At this point they brought in a Gateway representative to talk through the Tablet’s features.
He did a pretty good job. While standing up, with Tablet in hand, he walked though Journal, OneNote, the Snipping Tool, InkArt, Microsoft’s FlashCards, the Crossword program, and even the Equation Editor. Well done.
A few phrases caught my attention during the thirty minute presentation. One was that they kept referring to the Gateway Tablet as the “world’s largest Tablet PC.” Yep, that’s one way to put a positive view on things.
They also spoke of the Gateway Tablet as “two products in one.” In other words, you get a notebook and a computer that you can write on, for one price. Sounds good to me :-).
Overall, I was quite impressed with the presentation. I would have preferred to see Gateway bundle $500 of ink-enabled apps, but I can guess why it’s not this way.
So how many Tablets did they sell? I don’t know. At the beginning the HSN representative mentioned that they had 400 units available and then towards the end of the segment they said only 350 were left. Maybe they sold 50 in the thirty minutes, which wouldn’t be that bad.
Update: Apparently I’m not the only person that saw the Gateway M280 on HSN last night. Rob Bushway was blogging as it was on. He also posts that Gateway did a “pretty decent job of demoing actual tablet usage.” Agreed.
Loren,
Didn’t see this myself, so I’m curious if they used the label of “convertible PC” or just stuck with Tablet PC?
Warner, I don’t think they ever said the word “convertible” nor did they say “Tablet mode.”
They did promote it heavily as a “Tablet PC,” however, which I find encouraging.
Interesting . . .
I’ve had the Gateway CX2610 for a couple of months now and have been fully pleased, though baffled by the “purist” attitude some web sites have taken.
While I feel this machine (or any other machine) is less than perfect, I think Gateway should be comended for developing a machine that fits within a very large demographic market – someone who desires the functionality of a desktop replacement notebook, wide screen for multimedia, and the ability for full TabletPC functionality. Just as the stylishly colorful, friendly, and easy to use original iMac was the introduction to computers for tens of millions of people previously intimidated by the industry standard generic beige box computers with a poor user interface (windows), I believe that this Gateway machine(although larger than most)may bring TabletPCs into the mainstream.
As I travel quite often for projects, it is not unusual to see the “convertible” (not to offend the 10″ tablet purists) in offices, carried by doctors, architects and surveyors . . . in tablet mode/orientation.
Though I’m looking forward for a smaller slate/tablet-only (no keyboard, etc…)machine for in-field use, I have yet to see one on the market that fulfills my (and probably the majority of user) needs.
As far as the weight. Um, well, start lifting some weights guys and gals, I’ve seen some very petite professionals carying these machines around quite effortlessly.
Be it a 1.5lb slate or the 6 pound Gateway, I see machines with the same core capability fulfilling the needs or particular users – the Gateway “tank” most likely fulfilling the needs of the much larger percentage and, perhaps serving as the introduction of the masses into the TabletPC world . . . maybe moving on to “pure” tablets as they evolve and become practical to the majority in the future.
Blessings,
bk