Keep taking the tablets

I am rarely parted from my iPad using it for a whole host of activities which it simplifies and makes more accessible. It is also a pleasure to be able to review e-mails whilst sitting in a chair rather than being at a desk in front of a monitor.

We should not forget, however, that the idea of a tablet PC is not new. I was an early adopter of this technology and I used one of these HP Compaq TC1000s which I bought nearly 10 years ago - in 2002. It was an amazing machine being compact and light as well as having a detachable keyboard. With its digital pen, I used it as an electronic notebook for several years. This was preferable to my many paper notebooks all of which I have had to keep in case I want to refer back to anything. Having digital notes was a dream.



The pen broke after a couple of years, but I still used the tablet for a while more - in fact up to 2007 when it proved to be just too slow. I looked far and wide to find something similar, but to no avail. There were some Fujitsu tablets but these were too heavy and got very hot whilst running. No one had what I wanted.

So the iPad  was keenly antiricpated (bought on day 1 of availabilty) and whilst is not very good for taking written notes it is great at most other tasks. So the current travelling kit is an iPad and a Moleskine notebook with a real pen.

I read today that HP is pulling out of the tablet PC market. Having been a pioneer in this field, this is a real shame. But it is also a lesson about seeing the value in what you have available in your business. HP were years ahead of Apple but failed to recognise the true potential of their intellectual property. The rest, as they say, is history.

It I can take a positive out of the HP and Apple experience, it shows that you don't actually have to have a great idea to be hugely successful. Something which lacks originality but remains innovative can be great too.

Vertically integrating hardware and software has also been shown to work. HP was reliant on Microsoft's clunky Windows for Tablet PCs whilst Apple controls the lot. I think this demonstrates the wisdom in Google's purchase of Motorola as a platform for Android.

So whilst my HP tablet was a great piece of kit, not surpassed until the advent of the iPad - I would still rather have the iPad any day of the week.