Rebuttal to End of Tablet PC Articles with Andrew Dixon

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Rebuttal to End of Tablet PC Articles with Andrew Dixon
By Chris De Herrera, Webmaster
Date: 5/26/2004

Recently there have been an extraordinary number of articles casting a negative light on the future of the Tablet PC. In response to this, I contacted Andrew Dixon, Director of Marketing for Microsoft's Tablet PC Team to discuss the issues presented in the articles.

Andrew, can you further clarify the relationship between the Tablet PC Team and the Mobility Division and how in will enhance the customer experience as we go forward?

The Windows Mobile Platforms Division has existed in function for some time. The announcement of the name was more of a formality than a new organizational shift. The focus of the Mobile Platforms Division is to deliver the best experience for mobile Windows PCs -- and that certainly includes the ultimate mobile PC, the Tablet PC. The Tablet PC group that sits within it – an amazing group of engineers, architects, planners, developers, program managers, testers, business development, as well as my marketing team – remains very much the same. To understand why this organizational alignment makes sense consider the vision we’ve had for Tablet from the beginning – to make Tablet functionality a part of most mobile PCs over time. Within this organization, we’re focused on delivering innovative Tablet functionality to more users than ever before, in addition to delivering on other fundamental mobile functionality that is not specific to Tablet hardware but is also very important. This includes a focus on functionality such as power management, hot docking and multi display.

We continue to be incredibly proud of and committed to the Tablet, and we are hard at work on developing those technologies for future versions of Windows. In fact, not only do we have a significant development effort underway for Longhorn (we spoke directionally about this at WinHEC 2004), but we have a group of people focused on Tablet technologies for the version of Windows after that.

Would you explain to our readers how they benefit from having Tablet PC 2005 integrated into Windows XP, SP2 and why this release is important to the Tablet PC team? Is there any impact with the delay of SP2 on the Tablet PC Team?

First of all can I tell you how excited the team is at the positive feedback we’ve received on the beta version of Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005? Our customers, beta testers, partners, analysts and reviewers believe that we have made solid progress toward making the pen a more mainstream input device (like the keyboard and mouse). We are very pleased with this feedback and are excited to make the new release available with SP2 as a free upgrade to V1 users later this summer.

Just as our first version of the Tablet PC OS was built upon Windows XP SP1, our second version is built upon Windows XP SP2. This makes sense for a number of reasons. Most importantly, in addition to the new Tablet OS, users are able to get all of the fixes, updates and of course the new security enhancements in SP2. What it also means, though, is that we are tied to the release schedule of SP2. And since MS will not ship SP2 until it is ready and has incorporated all of the feedback from our customers, this means that SP2 (and our new Tablet OS) will be available later in the summer.

The good news is that it is free to V1 users, and I would certainly encourage all those who are in the market to buy the ultimate mobile PC (the Tablet PC!) to get one now. The current hardware is incredible. Students and faculty can buy now, well in time for the new school year. And all of our customers can feel 100% confident that you will be able to download Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 for free once it becomes available.

During the past month the Tablet PC Team has decided to rename the next release of the Tablet PC Operating system (code named Lonestar) to Windows XP, Tablet PC Edition 2005 from Windows XP, Tablet PC Edition 2004. Would you explain to our readers why the name change is important now?

The name change to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 (from that same name with “2004” as the year) was done for a very practical reason. We are now going to be available in the second half of the calendar year, and it is a relatively common practice to name a product with the following year name after half way point. That’s it!

I noticed during the past month, Microsoft has kicked off five different marketing tours for the Tablet PC. How does the strategy of presenting the Tablet PC fit into your sales experience? Is the Tablet PC Team desperate to sell devices or are you setting records?

Overall the Tablet business continues to grow steadily, with the last three months of sales each setting new records. I would agree, though, that there certainly have been a number of marketing tours that both MS as well as our partners have been running over the past 3 months so I can see why you might be asking about our sales strategy. The reality is that each tour targets a different audience with different objectives. Since the current generation of Tablet PCs is largely configured for business users and students, many of our activities (including our tours) are directed toward those customers:

· Our enterprise focused tour is called the Mobility Road Show, which communicates Microsoft’s mobility solution (including Tablet PC as well as the Smartphone/Pocket PC) to business decision makers. In addition we are conducting a set of technical seminars directed specifically toward developers. The tour will hold 25 events in the US, as well as an additional 25 events in cities throughout Europe and Asia. A good place to learn more is at www.tabletpctour.com.

· The Tablet PC Campus Demo Tour (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/campusdemo.asp) will visit 50 university book stores in the US to help give students an opportunity to see and touch the Tablet PC, and learn what it can do for them. Of course we hope that they will like it so much that they will buy one for the upcoming school year, and convince some of their friends (and professors!) to do the same.

That said, we also want to have a place for people to see and try Tablet PCs outside of a business or academic setting. Retail is a great place for that since many different types of customers go to retail to buy their next mobile PC. In addition to the Tablet PCs that are at retail today, we will also see a number of new OEM models that will soon join them – some of which are priced and configured more toward the home user. This includes the Averatec 3500 series convertible which will have a built in optical drive and will retail for ~$1200. For those who shop at retail, we are running the Demo Days program (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/demodays.asp) which is a series of demos conducted at retail outlets to help customers understand what the Tablet PC is all about. It will visit over 130 cities in the US, and we expect to see more activity at retail as more and more new Tablet PC designs are introduced there.

As a side note, there also is a Tablet PC Developer's tour that is also going on. Further Microsoft has set sales records for the past 3 months for Tablet PCs.

So now I can personally say that I believe that Microsoft is not discontinuing the Tablet PC. They are just broadening the audience for the Tablet PC's features. Overall I think that's great for the Tablet PC!

I wish to thank Andrew Dixon for providing his responses in this interview.

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