Thursday, December 20, 2007

Dell Adds a Tablet PC

I know Dell has plenty of fans among Realtors. Now you have a Dell Tablet PC to consider next time you want to upgrade your notebook. The company is taking orders its newly announced version of a convertible Tablet, the Latitude XT (http://www.dell.com/tablet) , and it’s been a long time coming. The starting price, $2499, may preclude this option for some, but with Dell now in the Tablet market, competitive pressures could ultimately translate into better buys in the year ahead.

Apparently, Dell waited until it got the touch sensitive screen technology—which powers the advantages of a Tablet—right before bringing its version to market. The 12.1-inch screen features what Dell calls capacitive touch technology for faster, more accurate system response to user input in Tablet mode. Users can touch the screen or use the battery-free pen to control system functions, or enter data.

Key specs of the basic configuration Latitude XT include 1.06GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 40GB hard drive, optical CD read/write and DVD read drive, Wi-Fi g, and a full-sized keyboard. The unit weighs just under pounds.

Tablets haven’t caught on here, or anywhere, at the levels some were predicting when Windows for Tablet PCs was announced in 2002 But that could be simply a matter of the solution preceding the need. When you look long term at real estate, and the inevitability of electronic contracts, digitally signed, and Web-based negotiations and closings, the case is being made for a Tablet, or some variation of its data capture capability, for future transactions.

So, even if you’re not ready for a Tablet now , you might want to take a look, familiarize yourself with the technology and think about its implications for how you conduct business. Microsoft’s Tablet site is probably the best place to start:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/evaluation/default.mspx

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