The Sudden Tablet Excitement

Yes this will be about the iPad. Again. A couple of thoughts "the day after".

First, last week there was this very sad article about Microsoft. I am absolutely not in a position to judge... But my very personal opinion is the reason of Microsoft demise has been the lack of strong visionary leadership. Simply put, after Bill Gates abandoned the ship, Steve Ballmer has not been capable of growing the company. It is not enough to shout loud or pound a table or have ambitious financial goals for each division to be a leader. Mr Ballmer does not have a clear vision of how Microsoft should be in five or ten years. He did not have a clue ten years ago either. Other than being the number one IT company. And without such vision he could not align his vice presidents to act towards that vision. Simply demanding better quarterly numbers from each of his lieutenants hardly can be called a vision.

In the meantime Jobs, the other Steve, the super-CEO has had a vision. And has been leading the company to follow and fulfill the vision. The process awarded with ultra growth towards being the largest company on Earth.

Today I went back to the year 2005 and one of my first blog posts here, crusted with a picture of my old faithful Compaq TC1000 tablet PC. At the time of that post, the TC1000 must have been considered old, as the first units were revealed in 2002. Almost eight years ago. That is almost a century in IT terms. But when I think about this tablet computer, I have to admit it very much resembles today's iPad, greeted with such fanfares. It was probably twice as thick as the iPad is. But had similar storage (60GB), memory (768MB), screen (10 inch). It was touch sensitive (albeit requiring a stylus), supported screen rotation (no accelerometer though, but activated with a dedicated hardware key). Was based on the famous Transmeta Crusoe morphing CPU, capable of running up to five hours on a single battery charge. The thing had built in WiFi and Bluetooth and PC card and Compact Flash slots. And two USB ports. No camera (as on the iPad), but built in microphone, speakers, and an integrated phones + mic port. Sounds familiar? The Compaq was running Windows XP, with full handwriting recognition (wish we had this in the iPad).

All that eight years ago.

So now after eight years we have the same machine, just half as thick and with double battery life. And suddenly it is heralded a game changer... "So much better in many key areas"... Honestly... I feel like I had an iPad before. Hardware - wise there is barely a difference between the Compaq of 2003 and the iPad of 2010. The Compaq had much better keyboard dock. One that could rotate and fold, so the pad could be used as a laptop. Or as a pad with the keyboard folded but still attached. Or as a pure pad with the keyboard detached. Apple should turn to HP now and ask them to make such accessory for the iPad. Seriously.

In 2003 the TC1000 was my primary mobile workhorse. I used to carry it with me everywhere. From an armchair to the sofa. And to business trips across the Atlantic. It was powerful enough and flexible enough to deal with all mobile tasks - from RSS feeds to email to digital pictures. And on the iPad I even cannot download photos from my DSLR. I will need a laptop to do that... You say the iPad has GPS and maps... well... I remember back in 2005 driving around the United States with the Compaq tablet as my GPS screen running Microsoft Streets And Trips with a small USB - based GPS receiver. Really not that much have changed...

So there is really no difference between the TC1000 of 2003 and the iPad of 2010? There is one. The price. As I have just proved, the hardware was ready eight years ago. But as far as I remember, a decently configured TC1000 was priced at the $2000 level. Now we have the same machine for $500. And $1 today is not the $1 back in 2003. At $2000 only a small number of elite geeks could afford the tablet luxury. Today, at $500, and soon at $300, the iPad will make a difference. Such price, coupled with streamlined OS tailored to deliver the best web experience with no extra overhead will be the game changer.

This time around it was Microsoft who was the too-early pioneer, too exhausted to continue the quest today, while Apple really is not the innovator... just a follower, but just in time to reap the rewards.