First Wave of Tablet PCs

Plain old standard touch screen monitors based on that 7" touch screen format cost more than $100, without any smarts in them at all. So I don't think you'll see them at $100 any time soon. But if they get down to $600 to $700, I think that they'll do pretty well. I think that, being based on a reference design and having a number of companies making them will help insure that they don't become just an afterthought. I think that it was smart to make sure that they were basically ready to go before really debuting the concept publically. If they'd just said, here's a great idea and we are going to get a lot of people ot make them, I'd not have much hope. But given that they are already available a month after the announcement is a good sign to me (again, as long as they really work.)
 
There are plenty of similar screens if you want to deal with importing. I usually keep an eye on Global Sources for all types of home automation and security products. For installers you can setup a wholesale account with the places and request demo units (for pricing normally only available in quanitity). I'm not an installer, but have had a couple demos of products that were interesting.

Here's a sample link to a touchscreen unit, however I'm not sure on the pricing.

Touchscreen Link
 
Apart from the cost the thing that would really hold these devices down would be the battery life. If I have to keep a device pluged in most fo the time for battery charging then it kinda defeats the purpose of having such a device. One could use a cheap touchscreen monitor with a cheap PC and still come out cheaper.

I like the concept but if this thing is going to last 1-1.5 hours per charge then it might as well be a wired device.

regards,
 
For the home theater, a very common place where you'd want one of these, that's not so much a problem. You want to pick it up, pass it around, let someone select a movie, start the movie, and then just setting it back in the cradle wouldn't be so much of a problem. But I think that some of them have 6 cell batteries coming that will provide more like 4 hours.
 
Cradles aren't bad if they truly are a cradle and not a dock.

If you can just casually place a UMPC in its cradle & it's chargin, then that's good. If yuo have to physically dock it with its cradle, then that's a pain.
 
To be honest I don't have a problem having it creadled. I just want a small enough device that I can take around with me and also use it in the office etc.

At night I want to take this with me and put it on the nightstand in case the status of soemthing change etc etc and during the day I could take this to work and work on the train and then use this at home when i am there. my wife wanted to get a tablet pc but it would have bee too big for her to carry around. She is excited about this little pc but we will wait till it gets cheaper and gives better battery life.

regards,
 
Battery life on these devices is dismal. Also, the original UMPC spec calls out for a "pocketable" device and these are too large for that. I'll leap when the new capacitor battery technology make its debut in 2-3 years. Capacitor batteries use carbon nanotube technology to greatly increase plate size allowing a huge charge to be stored in a tiny space. Electronic circuitry then meters the output. This is the battery technology breakthrough we've all been waiting for. Think 5 times the storage capacity of same size Li-Pol at one quarter the weight, no environmental disposal issues and instant recharge times. :p

In fact, capacitor batteries exist today in Eco-drive watches sans the nanotube enhancements.
 
As someone mentioned earlier, where are those small fuel cells? There were a number of articles last year indicating that a few commercially ready tiny fuel cells were in the queue and would be showing up in real products by now. I guess that was premature?
 
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