While watching TV tonight I saw two commercials that advertised “back-to-school” computers–in particular back-to-school notebooks. One was for Walmart and the various notebook brands it carries. The other was similar and for Best Buy and I believe Circuit City.
What struck me is that this is the first year that school computers and notebooks were made synonymous. No desktops, thank you very much. That’s so 90s. I about stood up and cheered. Finally, I thought.
This is great news for Tablet enthusiasts. Finally, the argument is no longer going to be: should students have notebooks or desktops or, forgive me, paper and pencil. Now we can get down to what really matters and get to discussing which notebook features are better for students. Which notebooks give students an edge? In class. In fun. In life.
If you read this blog regularly you can guess my viewpoint on all of this. Tablet PCs offer some of the best features for students. Not everything you’ll learn or think about can be typed–easily. The pen provides one more option to getting your work done faster. Think about Math class. Think about Biology class.
And then add in an application like OneNote and you have a terrific combination. Share pages in OneNote with others in the same room or across campus. No I don’t mean running down to a printer and printing enough pages for everyone. I mean all electronically. OneNote can do that. Can’t seem to take notes fast enough, while typing or with a pen? Then synchronize your notetaking with recorded audio. It’s a piece of cake.
And then, finally, for the creative students among us, what notebook can match the drawing capabilities in a Tablet PC?
Anyway, now we can get to discussing what really matters.
But here’s the kicker. In these TV commercials there wasn’t one mention of Tablet PCs or Vista (which now includes Tablet features in most versions) or Windows or Microsoft. Despite all the marketing money that Microsoft has proclaimed that it’s been spending on Vista, there wasn’t one word. Nothing. Instead the commercials focused on brand recognition for the OEMs and a quick mention of Intel. That leads me to believe that Intel and the OEMs are paying for these commercials and Microsoft is not.
Yep, one more school year where Microsoft and particularly Tablet PCs get left out of the most visible advertising. Now you may think that there are better ways to spend your marketing dollars than advertising on TV. That’s probably valid. But then again, why not at least participate in these ads that others are running?
Microsoft in the past has sponsored some school roadshows I recall. I’m not sure if they’re doing them this year or not. Of course, road shows that visit campuses are probably too late, aren’t they? The students will already have their notebooks. So I’m not so sure that’s a wise way of spending marketing money anyway.
And I’m sure there are other ways of spending marketing money too. I hope Microsoft is.