High prices make tablets hard to swallow
Posted by Tom Warren on 27 May 2003 - 10:36 · 10 comments & 409 views
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Full name: Tom Warren
Forum name: creamhackered
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Full name: Tom Warren
Forum name: creamhackered
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
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#1 Posted by Quick Reply on 27 May 2003 - 10:52
- I absolutely agree that the tablet pc prices are WAY too high! I could buy four computers for the price of one tablet pc, the specs of these tablet pc, apart from the flipscreen and pen arn't that flash either.
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#2 Posted by ronaldinho2003 on 27 May 2003 - 12:07
- They are way too high, but I was lucky to win one!!!!!!
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#3 Posted by Graeme on 27 May 2003 - 12:36
- Agreed - the premium you have to pay is far too great at the moment. I guess this is partly due to the size & weight they're aiming for.
I'd have been happy to fork out an extra £100 or so for the ink interface when I bought my laptop - I'd like to see it become an option on all laptops in the future, not just the ones you can comfortably hold in one arm. That way you'd be able to get one with reasonable performance too!
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#4 Posted by jkuy9 on 27 May 2003 - 13:02
- I looked into getting a Tablet PC a few months back but the prices are way too high. I ended up getting a nice 15.4" widescreen laptop, and I prefer it to the Tablet PC's I tried in store.
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#5 Posted by Galley_SimRacer on 27 May 2003 - 13:54
- I would've loved to be able to purchase a Tablet PC, but the convertible Toshiba's are $2400!
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#6 Posted by nookadum on 27 May 2003 - 15:21
- $2,400 is pretty cheap... to me at least... But yeah, prices should go down.
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#7 Posted by quanta on 27 May 2003 - 16:54
- I was interested in getting a Tablet PC, until I saw the prices - they were easily three times the cost of a good, full featured laptop. I don't get a touchscreen, but I get a more powerful CPU, a DVD-CDRW and I can use OneNote 2003 Beta 2 just fine.
Sub-notebooks were never this expensive. Palm pilots neither. If you consider a tablet as an oversized PocketPC or a slimmed-down laptop, consumers won't accept a price that is higher than a notebook PC.
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#8 Posted by rocks1985 on 27 May 2003 - 17:45
- Why do tablet PC's cost so much money?
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#9 Posted by
smek on 27 May 2003 - 18:16
- i dont think the price has anything to do with it, i have a big mouth, but i dont think i could fit a tablet pc in my mouth, im not sure anyone could
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#10 Posted by Mango on 27 May 2003 - 21:43
- haha 10/10 for a clever headline title Cream
IDC analyst Andy Brown explained that vertical markets are showing the strongest demand, with the broad market reluctant to meet the high prices of an immature platform. "Specific vertical markets are demonstrating a healthy desire for tablet PC products," he said. "As product prices reduce, new designs appear, the number of apps with handwriting support increase and the platform becomes more stable, we expect tablet PC products to increase in popularity."
Despite the slow start, Tablet PC manufacturer Motion Computing has identified the UK as an opportunity and is making its first steps outside North America with the intention of building its global reseller channel. The company, which only makes Tablet PCs and uses Centrino chips from Intel, has already signed Ergo as its first UK reseller, which has taken on a master reseller role and will supply other resellers.
HP may have picked a good time to announce the robot. Fear of flying after Sept. 11, 2001, has led to a rash of interest in videoconferencing. And the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak has put a further crimp on already sluggish business travel.
The promise of such technology is that a remote co-worker can hear the formal part of a meeting as well as participate in the chitchat within the room. Using a joystick, the distant participant can pick up on a sound in one part of a room and join in that conversation. However, those present at a meeting should be forewarned that the microphone on the robot is sensitive; hushed conversation in a corner might not be so private.
But for all its potential, the current model is still very much a work in progress. HP still has no commercial plans for the robot, which was built using a number of Windows-based PCs. Although the robot allows people to see the face of a co-worker in near-real time,there is about a one-second delay before the remotely connected colleague can be heard. And although an earlier version of the robot was designed to travel around the office via a joystick controlled by the person, HP has made the latest version static while it tries to work out some of the kinks.
HP is not unique in pursuing robots as a replacement for travel. For example, Los Angeles-based InTouch Health sees robots as a way to allow expert doctors and health care providers to be virtually at the bedside of patients that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.
But HP's lead researcher says that the company is far ahead of other such projects.
"So far the best things that have been done--they still kind of look spooky," said HP Labs researcher Norm Jouppi.
To be fair, HP's first attempt was rather off-putting in its own right--resembling a slightly bulkier version of No. 5 from the '80s movie "Short Circuit."
Mechanical engineer Stan Thomas said that when he joined the team, he noticed that people spent more time looking at the robot's shiny metal parts than at the video screen that's displaying their co-worker. Thomas helped redesign the device to have a more human-looking (and less jarring) form--the current blue, plastic model resembles a giant Lego.
People seem to like the fact that the new model doesn't have arms, Jouppi said. Although the arms on the first version allowed the robot to perform simple tasks such as pushing an elevator button, researchers say people were put off by the fact that the robot could touch things.
"They'd seen too many movies" with robots crushing things, Jouppi said.
HP wouldn't say how much such a robot could cost--though it is certain to be more than the price of a few plane tickets. The current setup for the distant co-worker uses five PCs, five cameras and a surround-sound system, creating a virtual environment. The in-office robot is made up of two PCs, a number of cameras, four directional microphones and several speakers. A high-speed 802.11a wireless network is needed at the meeting site to transmit the information back to the remote colleague.
Jouppi wishes that his pet project was already a reality.
"I'd like to have something like this," he says. "I have to go on a business trip next week for a two-hour meeting."