I have always been a little bit skeptical about the value of tablet PC’s. They didn’t seem to me to provide any significant extra value, over a conventional laptop. I think that this was largely due to my feeling or perception that features like the handwriting technology really just were not ready for prime time.

Now however I think things are changing. The time is right for a big growth in the popularity of this sub segment of the PC market. The capability of the hand written recognition software is improving rapidly and as touch screens become more pervasive I can see more applications being developed that really add value.

Presently there are tablet PC’s available from most hardware vendors. These generally all run Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, which provides all the functionality you would require. If you are the do it yourself type you can always run Linux on most of the available tablets on the market today.

Some of the most popular tablets are the HP Compaq Tablet PC TC4400 and the Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook P1610