#1 reason salespeople should buy a Tablet PC

December 19, 2004

#1 reason salespeople should buy a Tablet PC

Tablet PC — by TDavid @ 2:14 pm PST

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Our offline brick and mortar business is sales, my online business is partly sales (software sales as well as custom programming and contract work). I’ve read lots of personal reviews on why Tablet PCs rock from mostly biased parties (Microsoft employees) and a few reviews from unbiased third parties. Third party unbiased reviews often focused on the negative aspects of buying a Tablet PC like the lack of power for the price or the fact that you just don’t see that many Tablets in stores or in use. Tablet PCs are typically $500-1000+ more than a laptop with similar specs. But none of the reviews I’d read told me the #1 reason I should buy a Tablet PC for use in my business; I had to search for these reasons myself and it took me over two years to find enough of them to justify the purchase. Stay with me, I’ll share this #1 reason shortly, but first, a comment and question from Joe:

I�m really curious how you take to the tablet pc. I too have been hemming and hawing over it. Same with the mac. I finally broke down and got a powerbook. Now I�m thinking of selling it to get a tablet pc�

I don’t know that a Tablet PC can really be compared to a (Mac) Powerbook, Joe, nor do I know what profession you are in, but if it is sales, then you should find what follows intriguing.

Tomorrow will mark a full week that I’ve owned a Tablet PC. I didn’t buy one of those convertible models with the keyboard and swivel screens, I went for the Motion Computing M1400 which is the slate only.

I unpacked and reviewed the contents of this slate in detail on my spaces blog for those wondering about the full specs of my Tablet. And yes, instead of buying this through Motion Computing directly, I used Dell, to answer the one smart commenter who saw the Dell ink on the box. We receive a good corporate discount that made it more inexpensive to purchase through Dell than from Motion directly.

During this last week I’ve put the Tablet PC to use in a number of different scenarios, intentionally leaving behind my trustry road warrior: Sony Vaio. I’ve used the Tablet in both business (I attended two different meetings — one for each business – and used the OneNote2003 record audio and take notes) as well as personal use (reading from bed using the Tablet PC and watching our children make drawings), and the following are some of my first week, new buyer thoughts:

Handwriting recognition is the best I’ve tried to date. Just look at my lousy quasi-cursive handwriting below and the computer still figured it out (see the boxes below the writing).
when filling out forms click the floating input panel icon (circled in red as #1, see below) and it will automatically give additional lines (see above) for handwriting input. I was using the bottom input panel (which doesn’t give additional input lines) for a couple days before I figured this out (I should have gone through all the tutorials, I guess).
I need to get a screen protector as I’m using the plastic sheet that came with the system (why doesn’t Motion include a screen protector?) with some scotch tape to keep it on (see #2 above). Yup, it’s cheesy, but I don’t want to scratch the screen beneath. Spend a couple grand, you should at least get a screen protector. Anybody know a good place to buy a real, good fitting screen protector?
OneNote2003 can be used to record audio of a meeting and earmark notes at key points in the audio. This single, software function/feature was the reason which finally compelled me to buy a Tablet PC (but it’s not the #1 reason salespeople should buy one). I was fed up with taking notes on yellow pads and then transferring to my computer. I have an older Palm with one of those foldable keyboards which is easier and faster to enter data, but it’s a grayscale screen and hard to read. I also have a Pocket PC but haven’t yet sprang for a separate keyboard there, hence I’ve used it primarily as a place to store contact info and web usernames and passwords in an encrypted database. Using a Sandisk WiFi card I can also surf the web sometimes with the Pocket PC, but most websites look like crap formatted in the tiny screen. My goal is to replace this with a smart phone (must be 400mhz so it can run Skype). Anyway, do not buy a Tablet PC without OneNote 2003. I’ve heard a few people talk about GoBinder as a possible alternative (?) but I’ve not tried that out.
Blogging with a Tablet PC slate has been an abysmal experience. If your plan is to blog using this then it seems to be a necessity to have a keyboard. I am a much, much faster typer than writing by hand and though the speech recognition is decent (more on that in a bit) once you get into editing your text it’s just not good for blogging. For reading blogs (in portrait view especially to fit the usually longer, narrow columns) it’s excellent. This could be a good spot for a developer to swoop in and build a blogging client that was Tablet PC slate-friendly (for those who aren’t using keyboards). The reason I didn’t want to buy the combo Tablet PC is 1) because of the size and weight that the keyboard brings and 2) I tend to burn out keyboards fast, so this way I could buy a separate wireless (bluetooth) keyboard or wired via USB one and use that way. My Vaio keyboard is starting to become pretty haggard.
Speech recognition engine is above average. I haven’t trained this enough yet to experience this under real, working conditions but I did notice it seemed to be a bit better than the Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional software that I’ve tried out before right out of the box with very little training.
I miss the hotkey combination to get Windows Explorer up: CTRL + E. It’s one of my most used Windows functions. I do believe I can program some pen movements to launch applications so I need to figure out how to do this (tips anybody?) so I can bring back the Windows Explorer.
Setup for the Tablet was easier than any other computer purchase, including my Mac. It arrived with the battery already charged and I turned it on and if it wasn’t for entering in the product registration key for OneNote I would have had no other setup. No need to set the time or date or anything, it was all configured and ready for me to start using. Now that’s sweet.
Extended battery life. Where my laptop was only able to go 1 - 1 1/2 hours at best on a full battery charge, my Tablet so far through four total charges and depletions has lasted between 3-4 hours. It made it through the entire MSDN meeting I attended last Tuesday and that was with recording the audio and making copious notes. Still, I’m planning on buying a backup battery so I can have battery life up to 7-8 hours which will cover almost any conference day (breaks aside).
No signs of sluggish performance. Another complaint I heard was Tablet PCs were sluggish performance-wise so I made sure to get one gig of RAM, so maybe those who are complaining about this issue went with 256MB RAM or less. Difficult to run pretty much any PC these days very well on less than 512MB RAM. The apps are just too memory intensive.
Creative gaming possibilites. As a developer I’m starting to think about all sorts of possibilities for some really creative games. Though I didn’t buy this machine to play games, and it probably wouldn’t be very optimal for games like Doom III, there exists possibilities to build special, niche games exclusively for the Tablet PC. There are some cool free games in the XP Tablet PC Power Toys (a must bookmark!) which also helped me get comfortable with how to use the Tablet PC.
#1 reason salespeople should buy a Tablet PC: it’s a people magnet! Scoble should take this one down and use it. If you are in sales, then getting in front of people is essential; it’s the thing that salesmen and women struggle over. Converting leads to appointments and appointments to sales but ultimately none of this ever happens without contact. Contact with cold contacts (strangers, basically) can be especially challenging at times. With the Tablet PC and just attending a few events I’ve noticed that this thing draws in people from all over the place. Before Tablet PCs become as common as laptops (if they ever do) this is a key, niche opportunity for salespeople. Walk into a sales meeting with one of these and you are likely to get your prospects almost immediately interested. If you visit a group setting and want to meet more people, then the Tablet PC could be a good social lubricant. Here’s just one example: at the MSDN event last Tuesday I went to, I ended up meeting the Director of Information Technologies for the Muckleshoot Casino here locally! How did this happen? Another person attending the convention came up to me and asked me about my Tablet PC and while we were talking we veered off topic to VoIP and I mentioned how we’d saved a ton of money when we moved our phone system primarily to VoIP and this man from the Muckleshoot overheard me and introduced himself. It’s doubtful I would have ever made this business contact if I hadn’t had my Tablet PC. I have an outgoing personality and will introduce myself to strangers, but it’s rare when strangers approach me, and never has it been like the last week with my Tablet PC. Salespeople everywhere should be buying Tablet PCs, if only for their curious ability to facillitate conversations with people. That should be the Tablet PC mantra right now: “A people magnet!” Now that would sell more machines. Salespeople need an edge, a door opener, and here it is: Tablet PC.
I miss the mouse. The pen is cool, but it doesn’t replace a mouse when it comes to quick use of context menus and such (right click).

Now if you are not a student (who takes lots of notes), artist or a salesperson, how useful would a Tablet PC for your business? Not sure. However, I am sure at the upcoming CES I’ll learn about other business uses. I’m looking forward in the weeks to come to learn more about how to optimally use a Tablet PC in our business and I’m excited about the people magnet benefit.

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17 Comments »

Comment by Anonymous — December 31, 1969 @ 4:00 pm PST

I noticed 2 areas in which you had difficulty with the tablet.
Right clicking & Shortcuts to put up Applications

Right clicking is accomplished by holding the pen still right on the screen. After @ 2 seconds a right click of a mouse will appear. Release/move the pen up and right click options are present.

You can program the buttons on the side of the tablet to run chorcuts to IE and the like. Go to Start-> All Programs-> Motion Resources->Tablet and Pen Settings->Tablet buttons Tab. Select an unused button combination and select change. It’s not hard to figure out.
Questions? Let me know.
Thanks,
Russ

Comment by Russ — December 20, 2004 @ 4:40 pm PST

Check out www.arcsoffire.com. For Microsoft we are building out a Tablet PC Game SDK and a game called Arcs of Fire.

Comment by Sean Campbell — December 20, 2004 @ 5:45 pm PST

[Russ:1] Thanks Russ. I have figured out how to do what you described but my complaint was “quick” in relation to the right clicking and two seconds is not quick. I can right click on my mouse in a fraction of the time I can using my Tablet pen.

Sean - thanks for the links, I’ll check it out

Comment by TDavid — December 20, 2004 @ 6:55 pm PST

Check these out for your screen protectors.

http://www.pocketpctechs.com/detail.asp?Product_ID=WSTAB003-1

Comment by Robert Bushway — December 20, 2004 @ 10:54 pm PST

Check out Strokelt, a gesture recognizer that works with tablets and mice, too!

Warmly,
Joel

Written on my new HP tc 1100

Comment by Joel Orr — December 20, 2004 @ 10:59 pm PST

Not all pens are equal the Toshiba Tablet I have has a button on it which can be set to be the right click.

Comment by Mark Mehelis — December 21, 2004 @ 3:44 pm PST

Regarding your comment, “Blogging with a Tablet PC slate has been an abysmal experience,” what specifically would make for a better experience blogging on a Tablet?

http://tabletdev.com/Andy/archive/2005/01/05/202.aspx

– Andy

TabletDev.com: resources for Tablet PC developers

Comment by Andy Gray — January 5, 2005 @ 8:46 pm PST

Interesting..
I’m considering buying a tablet PC in the next couple months, and am currently reviewing as many as I can find (from online reports) to find the one that best suits my needs - which are simple: The screen needs to be 12.1 inches, it needs to display .jpg files, it needs to run some kind of image display prog like ACDsee so I can view image files sequentially (i collect scanned comics and have over 1000 - and intend to send them to my new tablet PC’s hard drive so i can have a walking comic book library viewable one page at a time) - WiFi is a bonus, as it would be nice to sit in a coffee shop reading my comic book collection and be able to go online on a whim..

Any recommendations? Gaming/etc isn’t a factor to me.. Just connectivity, moderate graphics.. Being able to draw directly to the screen with a pen is a plus too..

Comment by shawn — January 13, 2005 @ 3:05 pm PST

Shawn, do you have an established budget?

It sounds like you might be happy with a slate design, as TDavid uses. With the slate designs the keyboard can detach from the primary Tablet (display / digitizer, CPU, hard drive, memory, etc.) and you can leave it behind if you don’t want it. Check out products like the Fujtisu Stylistic ST5020 (or 22), Motion Computing M1300 or M1400, Electrovaya Scribbler, or TabletKiosk Sahara i213. They’re all 12″ with XGA display resolution. Appearance, weight, battery life, and cost vary. TabletPCTalk.com, TabletPC2.com, and TheTabletPC.net all have comparison charts that might help you sort through the differences quickly. Also, feel free to just keep asking around

Convertibles are great options for people who are relatively keyboard bound. Many more options there too

Comment by Lora — January 16, 2005 @ 2:15 am PST

Good article. I am a gadget freak and typically upgrade my personal PC system every 2 years. I’m also a project manager at a major software company. About 6 months ago, I went from a standard HP notebook to the Toshiba Protege M200 Tablet PC. My thought was that in meetings where typing is viewed as problematic (or people are suspicious that you are doing email instead of attending to the meeting), data entry via the pen is seen as less intrusive (mostly everyone else has a notepad) - that is - once people get past the novelty of me taking notes on a computer screen.

That being said, I’m not that thrilled about One Note for note taking. It doesn’t recognize my handwriting well after the fact. And, for whatever reason, I haven’t naturally adapted to the UI style offered by that program. I’m sure its great, it seems to have a lot of depth to it and thought behind it, but there’s something about it that bugs me.

As far as the power - that was a concern of mine. I only have 512 MB of memory, but that seems to be very sufficient for my needs. The applications I run most frequently are the office products and MS Project.

Comment by Dotty — February 2, 2005 @ 2:24 pm PST

Just some comments on the blog. Tip for getting at windows explorer without ctrl-E. Might be overly obvious, but move it down to your quick launch bar. I’ve done this since win95, and it’s definately one of my most used shortcuts, with the Tablet PC, it’s even more so.

Business uses? Well, I’m atech geek who dropped out of the business with enough money to start work in a creative field. In otherwords, I’m essentially a project manager for a nightclub. One Note’s functionality is good, but there are a billion other uses for it in the office. Here are some of the things I’m using it for:

1: Inventory - Keeping track of inventory is arduous, and I’ve used and abandoned solutions from palm pilots to traditional laptops, using Excell and Access. With the tablet PC, I use an Excell spreadsheet and the keyboard replacement applet to punch in the seemingly endless sucession of two didget deciamals for a huge 300 bottle bar inventory. Using simple formulas, the inventory worksheets can automaticaly figure out a suggested order, tell how much the order is going to cost, and (of course) tell you who to call. Knowing I would be working with my Tablet and the General Manager’s (WHich is identical to mine) I was able to rewrite an existing inventory system I had done two years ago to make the process MUCH MUCH FASTER.

2: Recording - IN additon to all the other stuff I Do, I run my own project studio, where I’d soundtrack work, remixes, Mastering, and vocal recording. Using my experience with that, and an old external USB soundblaster card, I have been able to drop my tablet PC in our soundbooth, and at the end of the night, I have six hours of DJ sets recorded and ready to rip to an MP3 CD. DJs LOVE to get copies of their sets, and being able to burn a CD while we’re counting the money is a great thing.

3: The Command Center - One of thehardest tasks in running a nightclub is keeping track of everything going on with bookers, bartenders, DJs, promoters, managers, security staff etc. I’m presently training the managers in using outlook to it’s fullest postential. With both myself and the general manager armed with tablets, we can easily use theincluded WiFi to keep our calendars linked, with the added ability to update any group withinthe company with a click of the mailing list. Depending on the number of empoyees in your company, this is a great thing abou tablet PCs, is the ability to use it as a mobile command point, letting you stay on the sales floor (Or in my case, the dance floor) while doing administrative work. I’m still woring on implementing full talet PC functions in outlook, but Microsoft has done alot to spimplify this with their Office Tablet PC Add on.

4: Library: With acrobat reader and the easy access to equipment manuals online, my manual library has been reduced to a 3 ring binder for the few bits that I don’t have in PDF files and a CD-RW. Now, when the Multi-Effects unit gets a weird buzz, I have a searchable manual right in my hands, with the ability to google any problems right from the booth thanks to a few conveiently placed WiFi access points.

And yes of course, people magnet. On a dead night, sitting at theend of the bar, you do indeed get lots of customers coming up and asking about the computer. Just having an open instance of Illustrator to swap to(with an upcoming event flier loaded in it) allows you to turn “What ya doin” into an opportunity to promote upcoming events. Even better when it’s a cute girl. Hey, I left the tech arena for the nightclub arena for a reason, ya know?

Comment by DJs4 — May 16, 2005 @ 3:16 pm PST

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Whats the price of a decent tablet pc?

Comment by Mayank — August 12, 2006 @ 3:20 am PST

URI

http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20041219/1251/trackback/

December 19, 2004

#1 reason salespeople should buy a Tablet PC

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