Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble notes a nice review of the IBM Thinkpad X41 Tablet PC.
I’ve been itching to try out a Tablet for a while, and might have thought to buy one when I bought my new laptop weeks ago, but I’ve never had a chance to try one out. See, no matter which store I went to, their Tablet unit was broken and missing the stylus.
People come into stores like CompUSA and J&R and just steal the stylus, to replace the one they lost from their own Tablet, and sometimes even steal keys off the keyboard. Worse, most of these stores attach one of those “beeper” alarms that go off if someone tries to steal the unit, only they place it where it makes it impossible to fold the Tablet into, well, a Tablet.
If people can’t try out a Tablet, how will they learn to buy a Tablet? Maybe stores need to keep Tablets behind glass, like many do with PDAs and MP3 players, with a nice sign that says “Ask us about our Tablet PC”. Microsoft needs to realize that Tablet PCs are never going to sell in decent numbers if customers can’t see what the big deal is.
Scoble keeps talking about how great the Tablet PC is. Somebody let me know why, in the city of New York, I can’t find one that works.
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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