Gates Launches Windows XP Tablet PC With Partners Galore

In a decidedly more upbeat note than the somber, nationalistic launch of Windows XP last October, Microsoft put the spotlight on the official launch of the new operating system and related systems in New York. Microsoft hired celebrated author Amy Tan and "West Wing" actor and celebrity Rob Lowe to demonstrate the usefulness of pen and mobile computing for note-taking, annotation and editing, collaboration and digital reading capabilities of the new slate device.

"It's a reaffirmation of the kinds of things that have driven the PC model," said Gates, who exchanged comments and quips with the celebrities on stage. "It really changes the way you work. We consider it to be the biggest evolution in the PC in years."

While major U.S. OEMs Dell Computer and IBM remain holdouts on the Tablet PC form factor, Microsoft got a boost on Wednesday with the introduction of HP's Compaq Tablet PC TC1000 and last-minute endorsements from Panasonic and Samsung.

As a gesture of support, HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina sat next to Gates on stage at a press conference and said the Tablet PC creates a new category of mobile professional user and won't cannibalize or replace notebooks and other handheld devices.

In addition, Gates said major ISVs Siebel and SAP have pledged to support the digital ink capabilities of the Tablet PC in their next CRM upgrades, including MySAP's CRM upgrade due next summer.

Acknowledging that handwriting and voice-recognition technologies remain fairly immature, Gates said the Tablet PC has a better chance of success than pen computing products built by companies such as Go Corp. and Momenta in the early 1990s because of advances in input technologies, improvements in processing power, better displays and battery life and deployment of 802.11 and Wi-Fi wireless networking.

"They ended without substantial sales because the people who used them didn't find them easy enough. ... Handwriting recognition is a tough problem, as the [Apple Newton showed. The hardware and software wasn't there," said Gates, who declined to comment on expected sales of Tablet PCs in 2003. "The boundary between PCs and people's activities is unnatural today. But the dream was still there, and we kept working on improving the ink rendering and handwriting recognition."

Microsoft formally launched the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, eReader for Tablet PC and an add-on pack for Office XP that ink-enables Word, Excel and Access. The Visio application will also be ink-enabled in 2003.

The Tablet PC is a horizontal product for ordinary business professionals and information workers that will have applications in vertical industries as well, Gates said. Office 11, due next summer, will better exploit the pen-and-paper metaphor offered by the Windows XP Tablet PC, he added. "The next release of Office, Office 11, will go even further in supporting native ink," said Gates. "It's one of the major design points in Office 11."

Microsoft was joined on stage by OEM partners HP, Fujitsu, Acer, NEC, Toshiba, ViewSonic and Motion Computing. The systems demonstrated included both convertible-style Tablet PCs with keyboards and slate-style tablets without keyboards. All but two are shipping models this week. "This time, it's really, really prime time," Gates said.

One representative for a large Microsoft shareholder who requested anonymity said the company is launching the new form factor at an all-time low for tech spending, with no relief in sight. "How many people do you think will spend on a new PC?" he asked.