As some readers were quick to point out, the concept of a tablet PC is far from new. It's been tried numerous times before. Some, such as Fujitsu's line of Stylistic pen tablets , have done well. Yet, most others have failed.

Fujitsu's successes in tablets have come in a variety of niche applications. You'll see them in hospitals recording patient information or at a factory tracking inventories.

It's highly doubtful you'll see anyone toting one around the show floor at Comdex/Fall as his or her primary computer.

But portability and ubiquity are what Microsoft will attempt with its Tablet PC concept.

What's different?

How is Microsoft any different, aside from having lots of money to throw at the project?

Microsoft owns the desktop PC operating system and user interface -- just ask the judge. This doesn't assure Microsoft's success with Tablet PC, especially with the strength of the Linux operating system, but it sure gives the company a good starting point.

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Fujitsu's devices are at their simplest, notebook PCs without keyboards. Fujitsu and all of the other PC vendors don't have is the ability to build in a truly new user interface.

Go ahead and hate me for saying this, but this battle is Microsoft's to lose I'm not holding my breath, because right now Microsoft says Tablet PC is a 2003 product. It's not exactly right around the corner. But Microsoft knows what it needs to do -- and not do (i.e., repeat Apple's PDA attempt with the Newton).

Our sources tell us that Tablet PC will look nothing like Windows. That's a good thing, if you ask me. Instead, Tablet PC will offer a multi-modal user interface that combines input from voice recognition, handwriting recognition with, hopefully, the option for a keyboard and mouse.

This, if done correctly, will be seamless and allow the user to create a memo or e-mail or surf the Web with a combination of commands, really whatever is easier to use at the time. Bill Gates will attempt to position the Tablet PC as the next big thing in computing hardware. It'll be the device that the "knowledge worker" -- his term for people that sit in front of a computer all day like me -- and will be carrying around in 2005.

But none of this will come to pass, unless the Tablet PC is significantly different from my ThinkPad.

Right now I'm using on a daily basis a ThinkPad 570 from IBM. I really like this computer. It's plenty fast, even with a 366MHz Pentium II, and I like the 13.3-inch screen. The only problem I have with it is battery life. That's just lousy at only 1.5-2 hours of real world use.

There is no reason for me to give up this notebook for anything at all unless that something, in this case BillG's Tablet PC, is significantly cheaper or significantly easier to use.

Back to my point about Microsoft controlling the UI. Though Tablet PC adds complexity in the number of inputs it will offer, these are designed to make interaction with the PC much easier for the average user.

If Microsoft nails the UI, this device will take off and nobody will look back and wish they still had their old ThinkPad. You and I will give up our notebook PCs for Tablet PCs or whatever they're called in 2003, which are much easier to live with and will easily take penned, spoken or keyed-in commands.

Anything less is doomed to failure.

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