Is the Tablet PC dead?

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I have the luxury of 2 laptops one for infrastructure demos and one for the day to day stuff most of us need to do.  I have added luxury on top of that becuase my day to day machine is a multi-touch tablet (Dell XT2).  Before I get the iPad comparison comments at the end of this post about multi touch screens, I would agree the iPad wins hands down  on feel and precision.

However I can use the optional stylus for real precision, plus I need to run random stuff on my laptop like Adobe Photoshop to edit my sketches for print & online use..

 

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and Microsoft Expression encoder / Live Movie Maker for videos on top of all the usual office applications any IT professional needs to use.

  I also need some of the other hardware that this tablet has:

  • A keyboard for entering lots of text (like this post).
  • An SD Card reader to pull in pictures (like the one above)
  • USB ports to connect my MP3 player, memory sticks, and a webcam (which should have been built in IMO) 
  • a SmartCard reader until we fully transition away from using them for authentication
  • a trusted protection module (TPM) to encrypt the data that’s on here.

Sure it is heavier, more expensive and has less battery life than the cool gadget of the moment, but I only need one device and one mains adapter to be able to do most of my work and keep up to date with the world.