Out of Africa and In Search of the Tablet PC
Alice is Back Dept: OK, so while poor Bill was busy posting like a madman and keeping our interns occupied and out of trouble, I was standing here (see picture) in search of the elusive tablet PC. If you're new to the controversy here's a re-cap: before I left for my company's regional meeting in Cape Town South Africa, I vowed that I would search high and low for anyone on earth using a tablet PC. I mentioned during the election week that I had yet to see anyone using one aside from Tim Russert on TV, and was basically roasted alive when I said the current crop should be killed off or at least considered a marketing failure. But I was determined to go tablet hunting across the globe, so here is my report:

San Francisco to New York: Woman on American Airlines flight 16 was using a tablet, but it was from Office Depot, white and ruled. She also used a fountain pen which made me think she was one of those scary retro people, but then near the end of the flight, she pulled out a ThinkPad and entered in all her handwritten notes.

New York to London: Killed five solid hours in Heathrow where the world does most of its duty-free shopping, but the electronics stores were mostly about music and miniaturization. No tablets on display and people were busy snapping up tiny camcorders and iPods, with nary a tablet purchaser or user in sight. On the plane to London and then on the very long overnight flight to Cape Town, no one on American Airlines Flight 116 or British Air Flight 43 was even using a computer or pad of paper that I saw (slackers!). It was all in-flight console viewing and then some shut-eye.

Cape Town Luck at last! When I made it to my meeting, the chairman my company's regional board whipped out a real live Toshiba tablet. Unfortunately, he used it PC-style the entire week and never turned the screen around, but I actually saw one.

The lesson from all this: 4 days in New York, four major airports, security check points where people show their laptops, business lounges across the globe, and well-heeled electronics buyers from all over the world... Final tally: one tablet user physically seen. That spells failed product launch in my book, no matter how many diehards cling to the opposite. If you have a tablet, write your comments below, because I literally am not seeing you represented out in the wild. I actually saw more zebras.

Note to Alice: Having done the research you requested, it has come to my attention that Moses used a tablet. However, he dropped it and it broke, forcing him to return to the vendor for warranty replacement. Perhaps this earlier display of the tablet's basic fragile nature has impeded its widespread use. As well, although still under warranty, Moses was forced to pay for the exchange despite the problem obviously being an Act of God. -Bill

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