Entelligence: Why people aren't buying Tablet PCs

We're introducing a new weekly feature called Entelligence, where every Thursday Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research is going to drop a little something in the way of gadget-related research data on us. This week's factoid: Why Tablet PCs haven't been selling as well as expected.

While Tablet PCs have intrigued the marketplace, there's been a lot of speculation why they haven't sold better commercially. Conventional wisdom would state that price is the leading issue but as usual, conventional wisdom is wrong. A recent Jupiter Research survey shows only 32 percent of online consumers planning to purchase a laptop are not willing to pay anything for Tablet PC functionality, indicating price is not the greatest adoption hurdle. The same study shows that 61 percent of online consumers interested in using Tablet PCs prize traditional notebook functionality in a Tablet PC. It's not that the tablet concept doesn't resonate with consumers, or the higher price. It's about devices that don't live up to consumer expectations in many cases and an under-educated consumer marketplace.

The question posed: "What features would you be interested in using on a Tablet PC (i.e. a notebook computer that allows you to write on the screen as an alternative to using a keyboard and/or mouse? (Select all that apply.)"

Source: Jupiter Research/Ipsos-Insight Entertainment Technologies Survey (7/04), n = 1,307 (online consumers interested in using Tablet PCs, US only). ©2004 JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation.

Michael Gartenberg is vice president and research director for the Personal Technology & Access and Custom Research groups at Jupiter Research in New York. Contact him at mgartenberg@jupitermedia.com. His weblog and RSS feed are at http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg.