October 19, 2004

My TabletPC Shopping Experience in LA

Just got back from my trip to LA. Had a great time, learned a lot and had some interesting experiences. If you have never tried Shabu-Shabu, you REALLY need to give it a try in Little Tokyo in LA. Its great food. So was the AWESOME Brazilian BBQ. What an amazing experience.

Anyways, about my TabletPC shopping experience. I think I know WHY the TabletPC is doing so bad in the marketplace. Its because the people supposedly selling them have no clue what they are doing. And that is compounded with them NOT CARING.

First of, I went around to some of the largest computer stores in LA. In total I found 2 TabletPCs. And I couldn't play with EITHER of them, as the "pen" was stolen at one store, and lost in the other.

I went to a couple of Frys. Circuit City. Franklin Covey. Staples. Best Buy. You name it... I was there. These are just a few I can remember off the top of my head. And in all these stores... I found 2. And both were busted in some way, shape or form.

When in Best Buy I had an interesting experience which pretty much sums up what I have seen. First off, while talking to the manager of the computer sales department I heard an interesting comment from him. He HATES TabletPC. He calls them "boomerangs". I just had to ask him what the heck that means. His response? Every TabletPC he sold has come back returned. People bought it for the gee-wiz factor, took it home and then realized they paid way to much for functionality they don't use. (His words, not mine). Thats not a ringing endorsement for the product if you ask me. Every unit sold has been returned? Wow.

The other interesting thing that happened is while talking about this with the manager, a Microsoft TabletPC MVP approached and got involved in the conversation. Linda Epstein, the author of TabletPC2.com tried hard to defend the TabletPC and even offered to take me back to her place to try out some Tablets. By this time I had enough of driving around LA looking for TabletPCs, had to be at a dinner meeting in an hour and had to pass, which was unfortunate as I would have loved to atleast TRY one while I was down there.

What an exhausting experience. Drove around LA most of the day... saw two TabletPCs (both which were broken in some way)... neither with a tablet pen to try the darn thing. And to boot... these things were like $2500 US. Realizing that in the "real world" they were called BOOMERANGS by some sales managers, this doesn't bode well for the TabletPC industry. I thought it was odd that in Canada we can't find TabletPCs to try out. I find it just crazy that we couldn't find them in a large city like LA. Now I think I know why its not taking off. The bloody things aren't liked by the sales channels... and are not being pushed at all. What would it have cost to get a tether for the pen, and fix the broken keys on the thing? When you can't even try the product... how can you assume we will buy it?

In all, this is what I have learned from my experience looking for a TabletPC:

  • There is no product in the sales channels to try
  • There is no real marketing efforts in these channels for consumers
  • The channel doesn't like selling them anyways
  • The channel doesn't know HOW to sell them, or WANT to
  • People who LOVE the TabletPC will tell you differently... and with passion
  • People who LOVE the TabletPC will give you all the examples in the world about its success... but in reality you don't hear about the failures... which there seems to be more of
  • These devices are still way to expensive; they are getting returned A LOT. Price sensitivity is a major factor to the consumers who initially bought it for the "gee-wiz" factor
  • I still don't have one. And until I get to try one... REALLY try one... I am not going to even consider it.
The last statement is a major one for me. I believe the Tablet could be VERY useful for me in my business meetings. And when on the road and need to read. And code. And do drawings like flow charts and data flow diagrams in meetings. And write email. (I definitely need a convertable and not a Slate) However, I won't even consider trying to justify if its feasible since I can't even try the damn thing and see if it would meet my business needs.

At this point, unless a vendor sends me a sample unit to try for a couple of weeks, you pretty much lost my business. I simply will not play "boomerang" with you. It's a waste of my time and money.

Posted by SilverStr at October 19, 2004 10:54 AM | TrackBack
Comments

I disagree with no products being available. I started thinking about a Tablet PC the other week an d called up my HP vendor with the question of "Are demo units available". Within a week I had a tc1100 on my desk to try out for four weeks. I certainly wasn't expecting this kind of response. After a week and a half, I'm certainly enjoying having this to try out. There is definitely a demo network out there, but you may have to go to the vendor directly to get at it.

Posted by: tang at October 19, 2004 12:30 PM

Dana: Sorry you had such a frustrating experience and that you ran into such a hostile Best Buy manager. You should speak to the computer manager at my local Circuit City - he'll tell you almost exactly the opposite of what you heard. Of course he's actually made the investment in training his sales folks HOW to sell the Tablet (which really entails simply understanding what you are buying).

I'm not disagreeing with most of your points - the channel is undeveloped, unsupported, and unmotivated. This is a failure on Microsoft's and the OEM manufacturers' part. They have simply not made the appropriate effort to build demand or satisfy it properly.

I hope you can get a demo unit because I think, having read your stuff for quite some time now, that it will change the way you think about sing a PC - I know it has for me.

Posted by: Marc Orchant at October 19, 2004 12:57 PM

Well, I'd like to see a demo unit too. If anyone works at one of these vendors, drop me a line. I would be more than willing to take a look at your offering for a few weeks... and blog the results.

Posted by: SilverStr at October 19, 2004 03:02 PM

Well if you and I every cross paths, you can check out my Acer Travelmate!

I do happen to be coming to the Redmond area next month and will have the Acer ....hmmmmmmmm :-)

Posted by: Susan at October 19, 2004 08:07 PM

...and one more thing.... there is something about passionate geeks who will strike up conversations isn't there? How funny that a Tablet MVP happened to be there!

Posted by: Susan Bradley at October 19, 2004 08:09 PM

Aren't the beasts as heavy as your average regular notebook? That combined with the fact that the display is the weak spot (both in stark environment lighting and in danger of being damaged by carrying), I can certainly understand why the things don't take off.

Over here, you don't see them much, either.

Posted by: Axel at October 20, 2004 12:23 AM

No, they are not. Mine is a subnotebook, 3 pounds and is WONDERFUL!!!!!

Posted by: Susan at October 20, 2004 01:20 PM

Axel,

Possibly. The HP tc1100 is still a bit heavy, but with nothing attached it's not unreasonable. This one did come with a nice leather case that protects the display just fine. As for brightness, I've had to turn the brightness down on mine as it's too bright sometimes.

Posted by: tang at October 20, 2004 02:59 PM

Susan: that'd be too heavy for my pleasure.

Posted by: Axel at October 21, 2004 12:38 AM

Glad you had a good time Dana. It was great having you over for the weekend, and I'm sorry we had no tablet success. By the way, the Brazilian place was a 'Churrascaria'.

Seeya soon,
-mck

Posted by: mck at October 21, 2004 07:39 AM

A couple of points. Dana, maybe you have to consider that maybe the tabletpcs just aren't that good! It could be not that you've hit on a bunch of random coincidences (high cost, none available, called boomerangs, not liked, etc) but that they just, well, suck.

A couple of things I've noticed, mostly in this post.

- most of the enangelists I've seen talking about tabletpcs are MS employees (ie: scoble)
- the person there who was "passionate" about it was that way because they were trying to make a sale. If this person wasn't a tabletpc seller I'd give them a lot more credibility. IE: just some random person who came over and tried to evangelise the tabletpc who had no investment in them other than owning one.
- you should not have to call HP to get them to send you a demo unit, you should be able to go to almost any computer store and check one out. As for stolen pens, yea, that's an issue, same thing happens with PDAs in stores
- I've often questioned the usefulness of a tabletpc myself, and I've been given many examples of how it could be used, and how wonderful it is, and how amazing it is, but maybe, just the 'boomerang' thing makes me wonder if my questioning the REAL WORLD usefulness weren't right

(Sorry I ment to post this last night but left the window open :)

Posted by: Arcterex at October 21, 2004 08:28 AM

If you are talking about Linda, she wouldn't make money from the sale of a tablet pc.

I don't and every person I've shown my tablet to just drools.

Once it's in your hands, you find ways of doing things you could never do with a normal notebook.

Posted by: Susan at October 22, 2004 12:28 AM

Susan - so if they sell themselves so well, why aren't they in stores? I'm just saying that maybe, just maybe, tablets aren't as good for the rest of the world as they are for the choice few who have them.

Posted by: Arcterex at October 22, 2004 08:40 AM

I wouldn't mind trying one, but without the hastle of getting one shipped from HP of course.

The big question: how productive would somebody who can touch type 70-90+ wpm be on a tablet?

Posted by: Wim at October 22, 2004 08:55 PM

I think it comes down to need and use. For me, I spend a LOT of times in meetings where I take notes, do diagrams ans flowcharts etc which I then later have to go and enter into the computer. The reduction in double entry itself could show a good ROI.

On top of that, when in meetings people get distracted when I type on my laptop, or on my old Palm Pilot keyboard. Writing is so less intrusive.

To be honest, I don't care much about the text conversion as much as a digital notepad. In many cases, I don't even need to convert it from my chicken scratch to normal text, as long as I can attach the digital document to my contacts and attach notes etc. OneNote is great for that apparently.

On top of that, I need a new laptop for dev. A convertable would solve both of my problems, allowing me to write in slate mode, and code in notebook mode. But alas... with none to really try this out.. its all just theory.

Posted by: SilverStr at October 22, 2004 09:28 PM