Windows 8 Design Considerations - background data

Fellow TabletPC users, and I mean TabletPC and not 'media tablets', here are some links posted over at the Microsoft forum for input on the Consumer Preview:

Evolving the Start menu - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Designing the Start screen - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

Reflecting on your comments on the Start screen - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs .

There is a lot of good reading here on design and use direction. Overall it is fascinating but there is a missing link in all this analysis.

These blog posts go a long way to demonstrate why some of us have noticed a change in the way the digital pen is treated in this release of Windows 8. It appears that the input or control configurations that Microsoft has taken into consideration are touch-based slates and keyboard/mouse equipped laptops, netbooks, and desktops. We, TabletPC users, are not included as a considered input method (at least not with any priority). It would appear that the little niche corner of the world that we occupy, and it has felt like it is a shrinking little island, has just gotten significantly smaller.

I started my mobility freedom with a Palm III. They were supplanted by PocketPC's and the Palms went away.

I moved to PocketPC and they were supplanted by smartphones that did not do anything. I moved to the TabletPC.

Now it appears that the TabletPC is being replaced by the 'media tablet' with significantly less functionality. Maybe we were not supposed to be this organized and productive since the market seems to be dictating that, overall, the majority of the customer base does not want what we can do with our devices.

Another strong indication of how much of a niche we are occupying is that I posted a request that pen input should be reconsidered to be at least as good as what we have in Win 7 for when Win 8 is released. Only 2 other people, worldwide, added that they would like that too. Three people out of the millions that use the Microsoft feedback forums.

It will be a long time yet before I feel some sort of action will need to be taken. Some of us still use WinXP on a daily basis and that has been around for a considerable amount of time already. Win 7 will be around for a long time to come but if our devices break we may be in a world of hurt when it comes to finding a replacement, especially the way these things seem to be built these days. They are not like my TC1100 in potential longevity!

 

Loved my Palm III and grafitti. It made a perfect organizer. I too transitioned to a Pocket PC, first with the original HP Pocket PC and then the Compaq Ipaq. They cured me. I gave up on them and moved to a C2D Acer 1410T, which was far more functional as a travel computer. I gave the Acer away when I decided to try tablets again and bought my HP Slate 500.

I have been largely pleased with my tablet and have been considering replacing my notebook with a convertible tablet later this year, after W8 and Ivy Bridge have been released. I share your concern about the direction W8 is taking the tablet. My pen is the primary reason I have a slate over a small, much faster ultraportable. Touch is far less important to me, as I can easily navigate a small notebook display with a trackpad or other pointing device.

 

The problem lays with no one advocating the hardware. If Wacom had firm leadership for pen input and partnered up with Microsoft to enforce pen input, I think we would see better results. If you can nab the cheapest notebook on the market and it had pen input, then I think we'd start seeing better results. But until N-trig and Wacom stop being providers, and start being advocates, I doubt we'll ever see the pen penetrate the market as much as touch has done with how Apple has advocated touch. The reason I think touch is so out there now is because of what Apple has done to push it and showcase it. Microsoft has showcased pen and touch, but it's always been these small research videos.

 

the market says that Tablet PC has failed, regardless of its merits. Microsoft invented the tablet, only to let Apple get all the customers because #1 Microsoft did not promote the benefits of Tablet PC, #2 Tablet PCs were compared to regular laptops which was a losing proposition price-wise, and #3 Apple came out with a more polished platform with cheap titles. Tablet PC apps are so expensive and priced like traditional PC apps. $30 for a friggin virtual keyboard??? Are you serious???

So yeah, there are people that still love their Palm Pilot and Tablet PCs. But Microsoft had to make devices that the vast majority want. The iPad is a great experience but the sea of icons just reminds me of a PC with the messiest desktop full of icons.

We have the iPad 2, the Kindle Fire, the HP Touchpad (with both HP software and Android Gingerbread), and the HP TX2000. With Windows 8, the TX2000 is pretty darn impressive, even with the lack of solid video drivers and lack of a capacitive screen (and only 1 point of touch). The iPad2 is still the best experience overall. And the Kindle Fire is just so compact.