Why the Tablet PC is Ready for Prime Time 9.18.08

By Eric Schudy

Chicago— Tablet PC’s are stepping out on to the stage and taking the spotlight.

And it’s about time. The technology and cost have made the Tablet PC as useful today as it is affordable. And improvements keep coming.

What is a Tablet PC? Put simply, it’s a laptop you can write on. Literally. You use the electronic pen—or even your fingertip—to navigate through your programs instead of a mouse. This is one of the best features of the Tablet PC, one that in time could very well put an end to the famous—or infamous—mouse. For why would anyone steer an arrow icon awkwardly and imprecisely towards a button or link when they can tap right on them.

For nearly 20 years, I’ve worked with Tablet PCs, beginning with the very first ticket-writing program that I designed in cooperation with IBM for traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1989.

Like any new technology, programmers, businesses and single users are increasingly using this revolutionary and inevitable advancement and adapting it for their own uses. What started in the pits of the Mercantile Exchange is now common in doctor’s offices. What was once a system limited to major corporations due to its high cost is now cost-effective for college students to take digital notes during lectures.

In the past two decades, digital handwriting and electronic pens have evolved from the recording of inconsistent scratches. A large PC used to be connected to the Tablet PC in order for the Tablet to function. Now the Tablet is a stand-alone PC in its own right. Its capabilities equal and exceed the standard laptop and even PC desktop.

In the last several years, the Tablet PC has developed certain advantages over the standard laptop.

1. Better ink capture. Today’s Tablet PCs use the latest in electronic pen technology. This allows you to use a pen that looks like a pen and writes like a pen. In the old days, you couldn’t write cursive. The pen wouldn’t give. It would miss. It just wouldn’t capture. You had to use an unwieldy, bulky pen-like instrument and had to print letters at a ninety degree, perfectly perpendicular angle. Not anymore.
2. Processing speed. It’s been a long time since the dial-up and loud connection that sounded like a flat-lining EKG. Increased speed allows the Tablet PC to handle the massive information required to mimic a black pen and paper.
3. More powerful mathematical formulas. Programmers have developed new combinations of mathematic formulas into electronic black ink on an electronic screen.

These improvements have not only made the Tablet PC equal to its ancestors the desktop and laptop. It has also made it possible for me to design software for mental health professionals. It’s also far easier than it was to design software for traders staking millions of dollars on this new technology. But the idea is the same. As traders could write down bids electronically, psychiatrists and psychologists can write down their session notes electronically.

The uses with the Tablet PC are only going to expand. You may be astounded by what I’m about to say, but it’s not unreasonable that the Tablet PC will become the standard in the industry, replacing the pad-driven laptop and mouse-driven PC.

And why wouldn’t it? The mouse is cumbersome. The keyboard is limiting.

The Tablet PC…well, I’d say it’s inevitable.


Eric Schudy is CEO of Therapy Office™, a Tablet PC-based Electronic Medical Record for mental health professionals.