It all comes down to cost. What it cost us to make it and what customers are willing to pay for it. Now they don't have to buy a monitor, keyboard and docking station for their portables. Compaq's design team will deliver next year is the Tablet PC that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates introduced at last year's Comdex. Compaq and Microsoft are co-developing the product, which will run a version of the forthcoming Windows XP operating system.
People can write on the screen with a stylus or pull out a keyboard tucked inside the tablet.
But Compaq and Microsoft see a more receptive market this time around. But the company sees pen computing systems being adopted in places like hospitals and schools. One common complaint Compaq hears from teachers is that students make less eye contact with teachers when typing on a notebook computer at their desks. A pen-based computer would offer the same computing power in a less distracting format for taking notes. Compaq would not discuss pricing or availability of the product, but during last year's Comdex Microsoft forecast delivery by summer 2002.