Loren asks how one would spend various amounts to promote the Tablet PC.
- \$10 million. I would “bake in“ ink and voice input support to a word processor and spreadsheet. If I didn't happen to have a world-dominating suite of office products, I'd do it in Open Office for heaven's sake. And I'm not talking about ink comments or voice notes: I'm talking about multimodal control. I tap my pen and say “Equals Sin B6“ and the spreadsheet cell becomes “=Sin(B6)“ or I say “Equals Sin...“ and then tap my pen in B6 for the same effect. Or I'm dictating a memo and see a word screwed up five spots back, but with my pen I can highlight the wrong word, choose the alternate, and return to the original insertion point very rapidly. The Tablet PC will never go horizontal until people can create the 3 most important document types: email, spreadsheets, and .docs with a speed comparable to composing them with a keyboard. (Note I used the word “composing“ and not “entering“) Corollary: The device that allows such creation in a mobile context will be a breakthrough comparable to the original PC
- \$1 million. I would sponsor an X Prize for the above.
- \$1. I'd put it towards my blog hosting expenses.
UPDATE: Oh, and pictures and diagrams.