Pen based computing.

The tablet PC is a device that is currently receiving a lot of attention and they are undoubtedly changing the way people consume information.  Apple’s iPad device has clearly re-invigorated this market but it has a major weakness that is now showing up in almost all the devices in the class, it’s focus is on consumption of data and not creation.


Steve Jobs is quoted as saying “if you see a stylus you blew it”, the inference being that provision of a stylus destroys the user friendly nature of the system.  He certainly was not wrong when applied to the mobile phone application and it is likely that it was the stylus that kept windows mobile confined to the geek world, your average user saw this as too complicated.


Yet once the device has scaled up to tablet size things could be different, but the current trend for slavishly aping Apples designs seems to have killed off the potential of the stylus.  Even Microsoft, whose tablet technology has formed the mainstay of my computing for more than 5 years, killed off a promising tablet technology called Courier because it felt it would not compete with the iPad and its clones.  Whilst the iPad et al have fairly competent on screen keyboards they do not have the same flexibility as the pen driven tablet for inputting information.  The capacitive touch screens of the iPad allows writing apps but they are hard to use with fingers or rubber tipped pens and are not anywhere near as accurate as using a pen.


I believe that the pen based computer has struggle to make it for a number of reasons.

1. Users did not figure out that there was no need to translate handwriting in to text in the majority of situations.  They believed their sloppy handwriting would never be recognised and thus the tablet would not be of value.  In reality 75% of my use of a tablet is handwritten notes.
2. Whilst the original Microsoft tablet devices were thick versions of the iPad format, Toshiba's introduction of the convertible tablet convinced the market that hedging your bets was the way to go.  People would get one of these and tell me they would learn to use it as a tablet when they had time, but they never found the time making them expensive laptops.
3. There was nothing “sexy” about the devices they were just another kind of windows notebook with a pen for a mouse.  Though people still look at me using a tablet and ask if it’s an iPad, when the tablet is off or not in use it’s just an everyday notebook.

I really hope that Microsoft don’t completely follow Apple with their Windows 8 release and that they retain and improve the pen based computing, combining it with touch.  Alas the recent trend has been that Microsoft plays to the established market.  If they do this then what will happen is that eventually Apple will introduce a pen based tablet ( see this patent application if you don’t believe its a possibility ) on their terms alone.  They will see that if they enable students in lectures and managers in meetings to just write their notes straight onto the tablet they can replace their entire knapsack/briefcase with one tablet PC making this the must have purchase of the new school year.  This was the vision of the courier.


They will have to hurry though if this article on Indiana schools is any guideline as if they take too long people may no longer be equipped to make use of the pen driven tablet.