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Producers wondering if Tablet PC will sell

Innovating * Tablet PCs are being touted by Microsoft as `the next generation mobile business PC.' * Users can input data by writing on the screen with a stylus, by typing on a keyboard that appears on the screen, or by speaking into a microphone.

Taiwan's high-tech companies are racing to produce tablet computers in time for Microsoft's Nov. 7 launch date for the software that will operate them.

However, industry watchers doubt whether the lightweight A4-sheet-sized computing alternative will generate sales.

"Microsoft is promoting the tablet PC heavily, but we are worried because the PC market is not so strong at the moment," Eve Jung (戎宜蘋), personal-computer analyst at ABN-AMRO told the Taipei Times yesterday.

Tablet PCs are being touted by Microsoft as "the next generation mobile business PC."

Microsoft launched its tablet PC initiative about two years ago when it drew up a list of specifications for hardware companies to follow.

The release of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition next month will be the culmination of this process.

Weighing about half as much as today's notebook computers, the one-piece tablet looks like a large flat-panel display.

Users can input data by writing on the screen with a stylus, by typing on a keyboard that appears on the screen, or by speaking into a microphone.

Microsoft has developed voice recognition software that can convert speech to text, as well as recognize commands.

By removing the keyboard segment, the tablet's designers have simplified the PC into a single piece of hardware, but many doubt whether the average computer user can discard the keyboard so easily. "Because there is no keyboard it is not so user-friendly," Jung said.

Elias Ek, the director of international marketing at PaceBlade Technologies Inc, a developer of tablet PCs based in Taipei, agreed: "Without a keyboard, the tablet PC is not so user-friendly ... In many applications using a keyboard is the best solution. Using just handwriting recognition is just not going to do it for everyone. That is why we offer a hybrid."

PaceBlade's hybrid PaceBook comes with a wireless keyboard. Ek expects to sell 50,000 units in 2003.

It is not just the lack of a keyboard that could make consumers shy away from the tablet PC. In a survey of 800 consumers in the US, industry analyst International Data Corp (IDC) found that users wanted a tablet PC to come with TV and video capabilities, full computer support, and the ability to function as a universal remote control.

"Consumers would have a strong interest in a wireless tablet product for the home if it would incorporate all of these compelling capabilities," said Bob O'Donnell, IDC research director of device technology in a statement. "Up to this point, no wireless tablet products have offered these combined feature sets."

Taiwanese companies that will produce tablet computers include Acer Inc (宏電), AOpen Inc, First International Computer Inc (FIC, 大眾電腦), and Tatung Co (大同).

VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子) has produced a reference design for a tablet PC, but it is not certain whether VIA will manufacture the product itself, a source at the company said yesterday.

The prospects for locally produced tablet PCs look uncertain. Taiwan's government-funded research institute, the Market Intelligence Center (市場情報中心), has not yet prepared a forecast for the number of tablet computers that will be produced in Taiwan next year.
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