Where Are the Tablet PC Evangelists?

A few weeks ago I noticed a banner for an educational conference at a hotel near San Diego Airport. Having time on my hands, and some business cards in my book bag with my tablet PC, I pulled into the parking lot and walked in.

I thought I’d just stay a couple for a little bit, but I ended up staying for four hours. I came away both dismayed and a little impressed.

The good news first, there are a lot of academic IT professionals evaluating and using pen-enabled convertible PCs. The even better news is that there is a growing tsunami sized demand for collaborative web-based apps that can be used throughout academia and many of the same academics who are adopting pen-based computing devices are also working on and sharing their collaborative applications.
Seated in the lobby I glanced through a list of attendees and their affiliations. I expected to see a four-star list of top line colleges.  They were well represented, but so were smaller state and private universities.

Now the bad news, few of the convertible PC makers had a dedicated evangelist at the event.  There were a handful of product managers and regional sales types, but the only two companies t there in force were Fujitsu and Hewlett Packard, although I did notice one person with the name “Toshiba” on their badge. Standing against a wall near the middle of the conference room I did a quick tally of the machines attendees were using. Numerous sleek Fujitsus and ThinkPad X41s and a fair number of solid looking Toshibas and Hewlett Packard convertible notebooks.

But what really caught my attention was the personal involvement of an executive from one specific company, HP’s Jim Vanides, who I think is the closest thing any of the tablet PC makers have as an tablet computing evangelist to the academic computing communities. Although Microsoft – which had a strong presence at this conference is doing a very good job when it comes to promoting pen-based computing in academia, particularly in conjunction with Vista, which is expected to become widely available in the coming weeks.

I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself to Jim Vanides, he was busy talking to attendees about pen-based computing and new applications and I didn’t want to interrupt. After the event, however, I discovered his blog at www.hp.com/blogs/highered. It’s become one of two HP management blogs that I now have on my “must read” list and his online posts about computing in higher education could be an example of what and how to blog for academic audiences now considering pen-based computing deployment or adoption.

My takeaway from the conference is: if a hardware or software supplier wants to succeed early in the pen-based computing market, they’re doing to need to evangelize, hardware, applications and adoption. And right now, despite some very good systems coming on the market and the immediate release of Vista, the only companies actively evangelizing this class of hardware is a very short list: HP, Gateway and Microsoft.

In addition to Jim Vanides blog at HP.com, there is another great resource on the web: http:gottabemobile.com. I recommend regularly reading both.

Jim Forbes, fully charged Lenovo ThinkPad X60 tablet in my small backpack off for a full day at a local college that’s slowly adopting convertible notebooks. 12/11/2006.

Comments

[Rob Bushway]

thanks for that great article and insight in to the conference.

I also appreciate the link to GBM!

Jim: are you attending CES in January?
Probably, if i can find a place to stay. But I more likely to be found out buying unsafe and insane fireworks at the outlets in Pahrump, 40 miles west of Vegas.--jmf

[Jerad from Indiana]

Jim,

Thanks for the post. I like the "I see a sign, I go in" philosophy. I agree that the tablet companies need to do a better job of demonstrating these machines in their element and to the fullest extent possible.

Would you mind posting the link to the other HP blog you read?

Thanks! Sure thing...I"m an old reporter with a strong sense of curiosity, so I just went on in---Jim Forbes.thanks for reading and commenting.

Jerad

[Jim Vanides]

Jim,

Thank you for your kind words about my blog (http://www.hp.com/go/hied-blog )!

I am personally very impressed with how our HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients are using technology to enhance teaching and learning. The faculty I've met, such as those who presented at the FIE conference (http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2006/papers/1248.pdf ), represent a passionate cohort of dedicated educators who are earnestly looking for innovative ways to help more students succeed in higher education.

The reason I blog is to raise the visibility for their best-practices in education - in hopes that more students, in time, will benefit.

I hope to meet you at the next conference!Jim, I love your blog and wish other notebook makers would do the same. I think what you are doing is in the best tradition of HP anda I hope your execs understand how important the academic grant program is. I'd lovde to meet you and talk about your views on acdemic computing. thanks for reading and commenting--jimF. Oh Alexa hanes is a former co-worker I really respect and admire.

Best regards,

Jim Vanides

[Garry Ray]

When I was working in Iraq last year, the most compelling "evangelist" for tablet PCs was another civilian contractor - a Swedish guy IIRC - who was thrilled to death with his Hitachi tablet that was fingerprint-enabled but also let him watch MP4 videos to his heart's content.

He also showed me pages and pages of notes he'd written on the tablet, all converted to Word ASCII text.

Why is it that fingerprint-based encryption seems far more needed and compelling on tablets than on notebooks?--Gary, because many people who use them keep their most vital info on the machines and biometrics actually work. Gary, i'm glad you found the blog and commented.
Best
JimF

Worth considering.