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 NEWSTechXNY: Tablet PC OS slated for November By Stacy Cowley and Ed Scannell June 25, 2002 5:23 pm PT update NEW YORK -- Microsoft will launch its anticipated Tablet PC operating system in November, Microsoft Group Vice President of Productivity and Business Services Jeff Raikes said here Tuesday in the opening keynote of TechXNY/PC Expo.
Microsoft will launch the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition on Nov. 7 with the backing of an array of hardware vendors including Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Fujitsu, and Toshiba. The Tablet PC "has been a long-held vision in our industry," Raikes said. He shared the stage with a half dozen demo models from several hardware designers, illustrating the flexibility of the Tablets' screens and their varied constructions, which included sleek industrial models for enterprise users, lightweight designs, and ruggedly built tablets intended for outdoor use. Software developers supporting the launch include Corel, Adobe Systems, SAP, and Franklin Covey. Raikes showed off several of their forthcoming products, illustrating how Adobe's graphics software and Franklin Covey's calendaring features can connect to other applications running on the Tablet PC. He also demonstrated several features of the Tablet PC operating system using Microsoft's own applications. Handwriting-recognition features allow notes taken in Microsoft Word to be quickly transferred to other applications such as Outlook; handwritten notes can even be sent via e-mail, Raikes said. One demonstrated feature that drew applause from the audience was the Tablet PC's pressure-sensitive screen. Pressing hard on the screen draws a thick line, while a lighter touch sketches a thin one, Raikes showed. A pair of IT employees from the New York Department of Environmental Protection interviewed after the keynote said they were intrigued by the Tablet PC. Network manager Stuart Weiler said he has a Handspring PDA at home that he's never used because the text input system is "too complicated." The Tablet PC's apparently fluid handwriting recognition impressed him. His colleague, network administrator Donovan Pigott, said the Tablet PC would be a big help during meetings. At one recent staff meeting, he recalled, many were taking notes on their PDAs, but people would occasionally have to duck out to check data on their desktop PCs. Wirelessly connected Tablet PCs would likely prevent that problem and could also allow staffers to communicate via e-mail or instant messaging with their colleagues about urgent issues without disrupting a meeting, he said. "If the Exchange server goes down, my boss could just send me [an instant] message, and I could send one back telling him what to do," Pigott said. Raikes also used his keynote to announce the next version of Microsoft's Office suite, whose latest version, Office XP, came out in May 2001. The new overhaul, Office 11, will be released in mid-2003, Raikes said, and will look to address some of the challenges mobile workers face in a corporate environment. The only Office application update Raikes specifically discussed was Microsoft Outlook. The new Outlook will feature enhanced search and mobile-networking tools in an effort to help users better manage their e-mail inboxes. Raikes also demonstrated Pocket PC Phone Edition, a version of the company's operating system for devices that combine the functions of a handheld PC and a cell phone. The software will be introduced within the next few months on systems from VoiceStream Wireless, Raikes said. Another Microsoft product scheduled for launch shortly is an updated version of Microsoft Reader, Microsoft's e-books viewing software. Microsoft Reader 2.5 will be optimized for Tablet PCs, Raikes said. "The whole concept [with Office 11] is making it a Smart Client. It is no longer just about creating polished documents in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We are trying to take it to the next level by allowing people to consume and analyze information and then share it with others," said Nicole von Kaemel, lead product manager for Office. As part of that mission Microsoft will lace all of the applications within Office with XML support allowing the entire suite to better import and export data, not just within all the Office applications, but to work that way with users' line of business applications as well. This will allow the upcoming suite to "better consume information from lots of different sources," according to Kaemel. In Office XP, Microsoft added XML capabilities only to Word and Excel. Microsoft will also focus on improving the desktop suites' collaborative capabilities, an effort started within Office XP; specifically, that product's Share Point Team services. In the next version there will be tighter connections with the applications and Microsoft's Meeting product. "Imagine the scenario where people go to a meeting and everyone has access to documents associated with that meeting as well as contacts that could be shared across the group. It is all about having a central location that makes it easy for people to improve the effectiveness of Meeting," Von Kaemel said. Perhaps the most dramatic improvement to the suite will be made to Outlook, which will feature a newly designed user interface, one that is less intrusive for people reading e-mails. Microsoft is doing away with the vertical columns on the right side of screen and is making the text of the e-mail look more like a piece of paper that takes up a much larger portion of the screen, allowing the eye to move more naturally from left to right. "It won't be splitting the screen the way it is today, but more following the path of the eye left to right," von Kaemel said. Microsoft is also making some much-needed improvements to Outlook that allow users to better organize their e-mails as well as a more efficient ways of searching thousands of e-mails for specific information. "People are living in their e-mail package more and more and are complaining about information overload. We think this can help them organize, search, and file all those e-mails that is becoming an increasingly important data source," von Kaemel said. In August or September, as Microsoft likely readies the first betas of the product, company officials said they will provide much more detail about these improvements and how they will work. Ed Scannell is an InfoWorld editor at large. Stacy Cowley is a New York-based correspondent for IDG News Service, an InfoWorld affiliate. SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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