Like any major loss, the decision made by HP to discontinue its TC1100 Tablet PC reverberated throughout the net with certain sadness. Even some of my favourite bloggers like Rob Busway, and James Kendrick were moved enough to mention the event online. Since becoming an owner of the device myself in late 2005 the news of it’s elimination from the HP line was devastating.
The little TC1100 hybrid is a Tablet of note. It carries itself with sophistication and a certain funkiness that few convertibles can match. It’s light, practical and profoundly efficient at getting daily tasks completed. For those of you that own the TC1100 I know that you’ll empathize with my note; still, while we lament this decision we must also look forward to yet another notebook-looking tablet PC by HP. We seem to have frightened the major vendors into some form of aesthetic compliance, maybe one of the new IEEE standards, that requires all notebooks to be of a certain shape, color, dimension and ergonomic line.
If only iPod flavored Tablet PC’s would grace the market place then perhaps the little teenee’s would all queue for hours to preorder our preferred PCB – the Tablet, only to later mark them up and post them on Ebay to the anticipating public. We could release them in numbered batches, like works of art, and hold Christies type auctions, by invitation only of course, and sell Tablet PC to the rich and famous – leaving the average geek only the ability to download PDF’s and stick them on his wall!
…hold on someone’s pinging me on IM…
I’m back!
Bloody TC1100! It’s too small to call a laptop and too big to call a PDA. As I went into Tablet mode to ink to my mate on messenger I seemed to have ripped the hinge off the keyboard…oops. I went to erase some text I’d hand written and scratched the glass on the screen – obviously forgetting that the standard TC1100 pen didn’t ship with an eraser on top but instead with a metal capped tether mount that really cut grooves in Tablet screens.
Guess I’ll speak to the wife in the morning and get some early budgetary approval for a new TC4200. I’ll miss you TC1100, but I think 3-months is long enough!
- What's your favorite Tablet PC?
- Are you upset that HP dropped the TC1100?
- Did you know Microsoft Infopath 'inks' out of the box when run on Tablet PC?