PC makers are betting the attention on an upcoming generation of consumer tablets could help generate interest in their less attractive cousins–convertible notebooks that are also referred to as tablets.
HP has announced a new touch-enabled notebook that can twist into a slate-like tablet and open up to offer a traditional full keyboard laptop. Separately, Panasonic has launched a rugged convertible notebook called Toughbook C1, while Lenovo introduced its X201 convertible notebook earlier this month.
“Up till very recently, the tablet market was irrelevant,” says David Daoud, an analyst at research firm IDC. “Now with the iPad and Apple, the industry is paying attention to it again.”
Though PC makers have offered convertible notebooks for nearly a decade, consumers haven’t paid much attention to them.”Tablet PC sales are just a drop in the bucket,” says Daoud. IDC estimates that worldwide sales for tablet PCs barely breached 1 million in 2009. That’s a very small fraction of the 162 million mobile PCs that were expected to be sold last year.
But with their hefty price tag and clunky design, these hybrid monsters are as far as you can get from the sophisticated, sleek and lightweight Apple iPad. That could be a reason why the latest convertible PCs are targeted at “business users.”
HP’s convertible notebook, the EliteBook 2740p tablet PC, is targeted at “users on the go.” The machine starts at 3.8 lbs and has a 12.1-inch diagonal LED display. Compare that to the 1.5 lbs iPad and its 9.7-inch screen. But, unlike the iPad, HP’s convertible tablet–priced starting $1600–has a multi-touch touchscreen and a full size keyboard.
Panasonic’s tablet also weighs 3.7 lbs (with two batteries) and has a stylus in addition to a touchscreen and a keyboard.
“It’s light enough to carry around but also tough enough so if you drop it you are not going to fry it,” says Kyp Walls, director of product management at Panasonic Computer.
Panasonic is betting doctors and sales executives will want to carry one of the convertibles around. Panasonic’s tablet, which starts at $2500, will start shipping in June.
Daoud says convertibles have always appealed to a niche set of users, especially in healthcare and the military. But their design and cost makes it unlikely they will ever cross over to consumers or become more popular among executives.
“Convertibles are just too heavy to carry around,” he says. “And the price premium for them is on an average at least $150.”
Convertible tablets can also be difficult to use. HP and Panasonic’s convertibles run Windows operating system and its user interface makes it difficult to touch and click. For instance, opening a program through the ’start’ icon on a touch-enabled device running Windows requires great positioning skills and a really skinny finger. As for the touchscreen itself, it just isn’t zippy or smooth as an iPad or an iPhone.
And even business users now hold their devices up to higher standards. For the current crop of convertible tablets, it sounds like another missed opportunity.
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Photo: Pansonic rugged convertible laptop/Panasonic
