SharePoint: IT still doesn't get it!

Here is a shocking statement of the obvious. It's not the users' fault!

I was speaking with a client the other day and we talked about how deploying SharePoint in his small business ($5MM (US), 40 team members) would cost around $15-20K... but if he wanted to, he could spend 10 times that amount. It is the classic problem of the clean canvas. SharePoint can do so many things, in so many ways, that the simple task of just deciding where to start can be a truly intimidating effort.

Full disclosure ... I am a strong and long-time advocate of SharePoint. I believe that it be a transformational force in a company. But the trick is, and always has been, user adoption.

In a recent post on CIO.com, Shane O'Neill cites a September 2010 uSamp survey of 317 US business email users to claim that the biggest hurdle to SharePoint adoption is the familiarity of old work habits. Namely, they use email to enable document sharing and collaboration instead of SharePoint. Over 80% of the respondents say the prefer to email documents over uploading them to a shared workspace, shared drive or a public folder. If you peruse the comments posted in response to the survey, it is easy to detect a certain tone. It is slightly condescending towards users; wondering why they don't seem to understand and acknowledge that SharePoint is so clearly superior to email.

It seems to me that SharePoint evangelists are by and large missing the point. If SharePoint truly is superior to email for sharing and collaboration, users will adopt it. But it many ways, it isn't.

Consider the following. When a new person is added to the collaboration team, how many steps must a normal business user go through to send them the latest version of the document? Using SharePoint? Request that the site administrator grant their account permission to access the workspace. Wait for response. Check to make sure they have access. Send them an email with a link to the document and the accompanying note. And that assumes that the new person already has general access to the site (which can get tricky if that new person is a contractor or consultant without a network account). Now let's review the email process. Open a new email. Attach the document. Write your accompanying note. Click send. Which is easier? More intuitive? Faster?

If your firm is struggling with SharePoint adoption, then most likely it's because IT is asking users to replace their easy and intuitive process with a clunky and hard-to-learn process. If you want to spur adoption, then you have to do three things:

1. Focus on SharePoint's strengths, not its weaknesses. It's actually very good for dashboards and content that doesn't change frequently.
2. Focus on a specific problem rather than an all-encompassing solution. When users find that truly makes their work easier in one area, they will explore it on their own.
3. Focus on the users that are heavy users of MS Office products, like finance, administrative assistants and project managers. They will find more opportunities to take advantage of the tool's strengths than the more casual user.

SharePoint can be a great solution for the right problem set. But information technology professionals need to understand that users don't care about storage space, workflows, or document indexing. They just want to get their work done. Help them do that, and maybe SharePoint can find a role.

The survey was commissioned by Mainsoft (a company that claims to integrate SharePoint into Outlook and Lotus Notes). Respondents work in sales, marketing, human resources, and legal departments in companies with 100 or more employees.

Planning for changes in mobile technology

It's never talked about, but it is one of the most far-reaching consequences of the invention of the iPhone. Not too long ago -- maybe 3 years at most -- the "Smart Phone" was almost exclusively for corporate use. And they were almost exclusively Blackberries. In fact, people didn't even refer to them as phones anymore. They just called them a Blackbery.

Now, just a few years later, smart phones have become a consumer device, being purchased and paid for outside of corporate plans by everyone from front-line office staff to middle managers to field technicians.

According to ABI Research, smartphones made up 19% of all handsets shipped in the second quarter; that represents a 12% increase over the first quarter, and a 50% jump compared to the same quarter in 2009.

Put another way ...

Nearly one in five of the devices put into service between April and June were capable of sending and receiving email, browsing the internet, updating social media sites, and downloading huge amounts of data ... all with just a few minor movements of a finger or two.

It is an inconvenient fact that wireless bandwidth is finite. In the US, its usage is governed by the FCC, and therefore subject to political influence and the shortsightedness of all government officials. As such, this dramatic increase in usage will have a number of consequences. For instance, wireless carriers are already experimenting with tiered data plans, which will become a vehicle for price discrimination and increased costs. And we might also see performance degrade for streaming content like video and audio. Although this impact could be mitigated by a variety of technological advances.

In any case, technology leaders need to plan and budget accordingly. More and more users will require mobile solutions. This means a different kind of user support. This will have an impact on every aspect of connectivity. This will have an impact on reliability expectations. This will have an impact on security concerns and how ex-employees are treated. The time to start thinking about this is now!

Source: ABI Research - 19% of All Mobile Phones Shipped in 2Q Were Smartphones

More competition for the iPad

By now, you've probably heard about H-P's Slate 500 tablet, on sale at H-P for $799. It's a Windows 7 based machine, with a touchscreen and stylus. Will it pose a serious threat to the one that created the category? Or will it be a reprise of the old clunky Toshiba tablets from the early 2000's?

Well for one, H-P is marketing the Slate 500 as a Business tool, not a consumer tool. This is a key differentiator, since there is no Apps Store for Windows. But, with Windows 7 as the operating system, users will have the ability to utilize all sorts of already available programs on the device.

Furthermore, we all know that H-P is an innovator, not a price leader. Dell's flipper machine will be soon forgotten (hopefully) and I'm sure they are working hard to come up with a competitive tablet of their own.

Check out the HP Slate 500.

A record for Microsoft

Your PC will likely reboot on Tuesday night. October 12, 2010 is Patch Tuesday for Microsoft software, when the Redmond-based company releases security fixes and updates to address security vulnerabilities across its product line. This month, the update is addressing a record number of holes in all of its major PC applications. The old record of 34 vulnerabilities - which was only set last month - is shattered by a near 50% increase. Tomorrow's release addresses an astounding 49 vulnerabilities in Windows (just about every PC and server version still in use), Internet Explorer (v6, v7 & v8) and SharePoint.

None of the fixes specifically address the threat posed by Stuxnet, an insidious worm that every IT professional should be paying attention to. However, Microsoft does acknowledge that more holes need to plugged in order to effectively guard against that threat.

Read the Microsoft Security Bulletin for yourself:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for October 2010

BlackBerry is to DOS as Android is to Windows

Nielsen recently surveyed about 1,700 people who purchased smart phones in the past six months. They've been doing this survey monthly (see the graph below) and it reveals some interesting trends. First of all, notice the what happened to Apple just in the July and August ... their share of new phone buyers dropped by nearly a third: from the 35% range to the 25% range. Next, notice the steady trajectory of the Android OS.

Much has been made about the upcoming availability of the iPhone on Verizon Wireless, but I don't believe that will have a material impact on the overall trend. That's because the entry point price for an Android phone is far lower than the entry point price for an iPhone.

If this sounds familiar, it's because it is the same thing that happened in the 1990's. The Apple operating systems for PCs have always been regarded as superior to Windows. They still are. It is more reliable, more intuitive and more elegant than any of the comparable and contemporary versions of Windows. Yet, you're far more likely to encounter a Windows PC than an Apple. As a colleague of mine remarked, "Everyone wants a BMW, but ..."

Is the Apple mobile OS better than the Android OS? Probably. But in a price competitive market, price wins.

So what about the BlackBerry? I stand by my previous comments. DOS paved the way for personal computing. BlackBerry paved the way for smart phones. DOS served its purpose and is now part of history, making way for Windows (which drew its inspiration from the Mac). The BlackBerry will certainly fade from relevance ... slowly, but surely.

Credit where credit is due:
The Nielsen article

Real power for your car

AS you look around your world, you'll find lots of technology innovations that have outlived their usefulness. I believe the computer mouse is one of them. Another is the cigarette lighter power supply. I don't even know what its official name is in the automotive industry. But I do know that there is nothing in my car that is less useful than that device.

A modern car engine is more than capable of producing standard 110-volt AC power. But because most cars don't have a standard outlet, we have to buy $pecial power adapters for our phones. We cannot recharge our laptops and iPods. We cannot power a printer or a scanner.

I'm not a camper, but I'm sure that the outdoor sporting industry has come up with creative solutions to this problem. Why are we stuck with same thing that our grandfathers used? Why do I have to buy another device to plug into that ridiculous 12-volt DC outlet in order to get AC power?

By the way, Radio Shack sells inverters ... Inverters & Chargers"

Weaker Server demand forecasted

Industry analysts, such as Ticonderoga Securities and Mercury Research, are expecting server demand to weaken in the next six months. While Dell and H-P had strong performance in the first half of 2010, most analysts attributed this to pent-up demand as firms delayed purchases during the recession. (source: ComputerWorld) Now that those lifecycle replacements have been completed, it makes sense that the market will soften.

My expectation is that we will see a rather pronounced slowdown in server orders, especially in the lines geared to small- to medium-sized businesses. My clients are replacing existing infrastructure but are not significantly adding capacity because they are quite uncertain about what the 2011 economy will look like. They would like to prepare for growth, but they are conserving cash. They are planning, but not buying.

The article cited above references the impact it will have on chip makers, such as Intel and AMD. But I'm also considering how this will affect infrastructure software vendors, as the most prudent operating system strategy ties those license updates to server purchases. I believe this will have a noticeable impact on sales of Windows Server licenses, VMWare licenses, and even business continuity solutions.

Trouble for the BlackBerry

According to a Nielsen survey of current mobile phone subscribers who are thinking of switching phones, the iPhone is currently the most appealing 'next' phone. But that's not really news, is it. Take a closer look at the graph. Both the Android and the iPhone have earned tremendous customer loyalty with nearly 90% of current iPhone users and over 70% of current Android users waning to stay with their current type of device. Conversely, more than half of current BlackBerry users want to switch to either the iPhone (29%), the Android (21%) or some other device (anything but a BlackBerry?).

The survey was released last week, so it's unclear as to whether the latest BlackBerry device was a part of respondent's thinking. But I don't really believe it matters. I've been predicting the demise of the BlackBerry for over a year now. And these results confirm my suspicions.

The BlackBerry had its day. It was transformational. It was a symbol of success and energy and technical know-how.

But its day has passed. There will be skirmishes, but the war is over.

Thanks, BlackBerry. It was great working with you.

The Nielsen survey report can be found here ...
Android Soars, but iPhone Still Most Desired

Competition for the iPad is coming

Back in April, when the iPad first hit the market, I suggested that this revolutionary device represents a turning point in mobile computing. For that to happen, of course, other manufacturers will have to try and beat Apple at its own game. Samsung appears to be the first to enter the fray, introducing the Galaxy Tab last week. The company expects to launch the device in European markets by mid-October and in the US market in the months that follow.

The most obvious difference between the iPad and the Galaxy Tab is the size, with the Galaxy being much smaller - a 7" screen size. Samsung has positioned the product to be easily carried in pocket or purse. Of course, the iPad has a huge head start in available applications and adoption. But the Galaxy is based on the Android v2.2. operating system, so we shouldn't expect that lead to last forever.

So the Android-based phones have proven to be worthy competitors to the iPhone. Will Android-based tablets enjoy similar success. I believe that the answer will be yes. The price point for the Galaxy is expected to be $200-300 ... or about the same as the entry-level iPad. It won't have the same functionality or elegance as the iPad for another year or so, but neither did the Android-based phones.

Eventually, I truly believe that the mobile computing market will look a lot like the desktop market. Apple will consistently own a substantial minority - 10-15% - of the market. Users who value innovation and elegance will make up their loyal and passionate base. The rest of the market ... those who value economy and utility ... will gravitate towards the Android.

The Galaxy Tab Homepage
Warning: the music is loud and little annoying

E-Book sales surpass Book sales

We knew this day was coming ... and it did about 5 weeks ago. Amazon announced, and the major publishers have confirmed that they sold 43% more e-book copies than hardback copies during the second quarter of the year. Celebrated novelist James Patterson has sold more 1 million e-books and other popular writers are seeing similar results.

Although digital book sales account for only 6% of the American consumer book market, it's only a matter of time before paperbacks and hardbacks are relegated to the minority. Right now the primary constraint is the entry-cost. A Kindle is $139, and it does only one thing. Tests of the Kindle for textbooks were unsuccessful, so that will cut into the growth curve. So that means that a person will have to fork over 2 weeks' worth of groceries for a highly discretionary, single-purpose device. Clearly, plenty of people have decided that it's worth the cost, but I don't see that as being sustainable.

All in all, the e-book phenomenon reminds me of the evolution of the cell phone market. In the early 1990's, hard-working men and women handed over $500 for a device that, by today's standards, was laughably limited. For that kind of cash, plus a monthly fee of $75-100, you got a carphone, with maybe 99 speed dial numbers and a hole in your roof for the antenna. Less than two decades later, the BlackBerry - that venerable standard-bearer - has been rendered obsolete by phones that my teenage daughter can afford.

I see this playing out in one of two ways. Either the Kindle we become essentially free ... less than $50; or advanced devices like the iPad will become the de facto digital book readers for the American middle-class. My money is on the latter scenario. An iPad might be 4x the price of a Kindle, but it does far, far more. Once a competitive product comes out, like a Droid or even a Windows Mobile tablet, the market will explode. Price will no longer be a significant barrier for the middle market. And publishers will have to completely rethink their business model... just like the music industry did.

What do you think?

Credit where credit is due:
I got the idea for this post from reading these two articles ...
WSJ Tech Digits: New Thriller Sells More E-Books Than Hardcovers (link requires subscription)
The Guardian (UK): Amazon's ebook milestone: digital sales outstrip hardbacks for first time in US

Useful apps for the Droid

Here are some of apps that I have found to be the most useful for me, not including the ones that come pre-installed on my Droid.

• Quick Profile: I use it to quickly set the volume for various notifications, based on where I am and what I'm doing. My "car windows down" profile turns the volume up on phone calls, Bluetooth in-call volume, and notifications. My "meeting" profile sets the phone ringer to vibrate, shuts off the Bluetooth, and turns off email and text message notifications. I use this application almost constantly; it's reliable and adds a level of convenience to the phone that is remarkable.
  
• GReader: A decent app that displays the blogs that I subscribe to in Google Reader so that I don't have to try and read them in my web browser. The synchronization doesn't work very well, but it opens the posts faster than the browser.
• Google Maps Labs: There are a couple of really nice add-ons for Google Maps. Namely, the scale bar and the layer button. Both have made the application much easier to use.
  
• The Weather Channel: I can get the forecast for the cities I'm interested in, even if I'm not there.
• Battery Widget: This puts a battery meter right on the main display, which I find to be very convenient.
  

Of course, Pandora and FaceBook get a lot of use on my Droid, as does Soduko Daily. I still haven't found a good auto-text function, like I had on my BlackBerry. Inserty allows you to pre-compose some text to use in messaging, but it's cumbersome to use. ShapeWriter has made touch-screen composition much better for me, but I don't think it is still available in the Droid Marketplace. I don't know if a replacement has been published.

What do you think?
What are your favorite Droid apps?

Is the PMO still useful?

A few years back, the Project Management Office was the hot trend in business, especially among enterprises on the large side of the mid-sized spectrum. Clearly, these firms saw the benefits of investing in the discipline of project management and of standardizing best practices across their companies. Graphs like this actually mattered to people. A PMO that didn't have the right cultural fit would really impede progress against important initiatives.

But who still has a PMO?
Are there any firms under $500M (US) that can afford the overhead?
Does the value generated by a PMO even come close to covering its costs?

The mega-enterprise clearly gains sufficient value from a PMO. Just having a standardized, predictable reporting methodology is probably worth the cost. But I can't see a medium-sized firm getting enough benefits to justify the expense of at least 3 FTEs, supporting software and the added project costs.

What do you think?

The Blog Police

Blogging is earning a unique place in the hierarchy of marketing tools. Not too long ago, a corporate blog was seen as something that that the kids were doing down on the first floor. The grey-beards were intrigued and impressed with the display of initiative, but didn't pay much attention to the activity.

Now the perspective is that a blog is a necessary ... even indispensable ... part of the overall marketing strategy. They create an informal and seemingly natural conversation about the company, which fills in the overall brand image in the consumer's mind. Blogs don't replace traditional media, but they help to complete the picture.

But even though blogs are critically important, there are thousands of smaller companies that don't produce them. Why? When they would stand to benefit the most from them? Simply, it takes time to write. I have barely written over the past 6 months. The firm I work for has amazing expertise and a remarkable breadth of knowledge across the team. Yet, there is no Hartman Blog. So it is no surprise that a micro-industry has risen up to fill this need.

But a blog posting has no requirement for accuracy in and of itself. And frankly, there are many, many bad writers out there.* So, a group of concerned - and self-interested - people came together to form the Internet Content Syndication Council (ICSC) back in 2007. Earlier this year, they published a document calling for some sort of reviewing authority that would certify blogs as being of acceptable quality. "Low-quality content can pollute the information ecosystem," as one of their members once said. They believe that this process will somehow protect readers from being misled.

But who will certify the ICSC certifiers? What gives them the authority to separate accurate opinions from inaccurate ones? How will they keep their personal biases - or corporate agendas - from influencing their decisions?

I believe that readers are smart enough to distinguish truth from fiction and facts from opinion. The internet needs no blog police to give their stamp of approval to my posts or to anyone else's. Bloggers who routinely lie lose readership. That's all the policing we need.

A related article at AdWeek: Council to Counter Web 'Content Mills'?
* On a scale of 1 to 10, I give myself, on average, a 7.5. I have definitely produced some high-quality posts, but I also have published more than my fair share of atrocious writing.

How to tell when someone is on the phone

You are driving down the road and the car in front of you starts ...

• slowing down for no apparent reason
• using up the entire lane, and maybe a little more than the lane
• then straightens out and speeds back up

Did you notice the driver's head, as it turned down and to the right?

Voice activated dialing will help some of this, but the caller still needs to pick which number to use, right? And when the phone rings, the caller-ID feature makes it very tempting to check the screen before answering the call, doesn't it?

Better Laptops are Coming

Last week, Intel announced a new line of processors built for the latest style of portable computer: Ultra Thin Laptops. The idea is to take the form factor of the netbook -- skinny & light -- and imbue it with the power of a modern laptop. The chips are the latest iteration in the ultrathin processor series that AMD pioneered last January. According to Intel, this chips require less power than traditional laptop processors. While they are not to be as powerful as a conventional laptop processor, they are expected to be more robust than their Atom processors, which are the chip of choice for today's netbooks.

This development is going to create competition for ... and the Windows-based answer ... to the Apple iPad. The opportunity, though, is for one of the leading laptop manufacturers to sell a touch-screen ultrathin laptop for under $1,500. I don't know if Dell or Lenovo or HP or Acer can pull that off. But if they can, then such a machine could be a category-killer for the traditional laptop. Most professionals do not need the power and capacity of a desktop replacement laptop. But the netbooks are just a bit underpowered for their needs. This machine would fill that gap. And the touch-screen would satisfy their desire to have a technologically advanced device on their desk.

For more, read ... ComputerWorld: Intel to launch new chips

The browser of the future

Google's Chrome browser hit the market just over a year and a half ago and it is fast becoming the replacement of choice for people seeking to break free from Internet Explorer. As the table presented here shows, Microsoft's flagship browser (regardless of version) has been steadily losing market share for a long time. Firefox had earned most of IE's losses by virtue of its superior interface, its innovative tabbed browsing, and - of course - all of those fantastic, free add-ons.

But while IE continues to lose ground, users are no longer defaulting to Firefox. Chrome gained a much larger slice of the market last month than Firefox. Certainly, Google has done its normal, excellent work of promotion. But there is more to the story than superior hype.

For one, Chrome is fast. Really, really fast. On every one of my PCs, Chrome launches and loads pages far more quickly than Firefox. Second, Chrome's exceedingly simple interface provides nearly an inch of additional rendering space on the screen. And of course, Google is encouraging their developers to make the application more useful everyday.

Firefox is still my preferred browser, but I suspect that may change in the coming months.

Credit where credit is due ...
Visit Net Market Share for more information about global browser usage.

Palm ... what once was

News of this week's purchase of Palm, Inc. by Hewlett-Packard has drawn a mixture of responses. Of course, H-P sees that the future is mobile. Perhaps they have decided that buying their way into the mobile market is cheaper than trying to develop a product that competes with the Droid or iPhone.

Some industry analysts see this as a bad omen for Motorola, Apple and RIM. For two reasons, I'm not so sure.

First, the most innovative phones of the past 3 years are the iPhone and the Droid. The Pre was a lame attempt to compete with the iPhone. So, even though it beat the Droid to market by more than a year, it has yet garner any significant share of the market. The BlackBerry's position in the corporate market is safe, for now, and the iPhone and Droid have a virtual stranglehold on the consumer and small-business sector.

Secondly, I don't believe this transaction is about phones at all. I believe that this move is to help H-P expand their offering in the newly emerging tablet market.

There has yet to be a Windows tablet that has generated 1/100th of the buzz that the iPad has created. If H-P can translate the strengths of the Palm OS into a touch-screen tablet that can compete with the iPad, then the acquisition could be a game-changer.

Can they compete from a marketing standpoint? They have enough cash to do so.
Can they compete from a product standpoint? Time will tell.

What the iPad means at first

So it's been a few weeks now since Apple's iPad went on the market. And later this week, a more useful 3G version hits the streets. Last week's Earnings Call (which took place on April 20, 2010) shed little light on the sales performance of the device, except to say that Apple's executives aren't displeased by the early returns. Of course, the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg raved (link for subscribers only) about the device, but for years he's been a loyal Apple user who decries the IT management's resistance to his favorite machines.

So now what?
The buzz and hype were up to Apple's extraordinary standards. The design and aesthetics of the machine are there, as well. But will it truly be a turning point in personal computing?

My opinion ... yes, but perhaps not in the way most people might expect.

The iPod completely changed the way people buy music. I don't know anyone under the age of 70 that still buys CDs. That's an entire industry virtually eliminated in under 10 years. Portable CD players are so rare that it's surprising to see one outside of a museum. Of course, the iPod wasn't the first MP3 player ... but it was the first to be truly easy to use.

Which brings me back to the iPad.
Tablet PCs have been around for a long time. Through the years several attempts to make a good one have met with limited, albeit genuine, success. But they were heavy, bulky and unintuitive. The iPad is none of those things. And the other manufacturers will figure out how to make their version of it. Windows 7 already has important design features that bring touch screen technology closer to the consumer. Mobile phones, like the iPhone, the Droid (my personal favorite) and the BlackBerry Storm (not a great phone), have proven that touch screen technology can be put in consumers' hands for a reasonable price.

So, all of the pieces are in place and the iPad has played the critical role of causing people in the real world to pay attention to tablet PCs. The big question is ... when will all of that innovation translate to the corporate environment? Will tablet PCs replace laptops and notebook computers? Will their budgets have enough room in them for experimentation and failures? Given our uncertain economic climate, I think it will be another 12-18 months before we see that start happening. That will give manufacturers time to try and fail and try again. And then, we'll see the true impact of the iPad.

Apple Inc.: AAPL (NASDAQ)

US and China at war??

InformationWeek's David Berlind posed a provocative question on Government Blogs this past Friday. He compares the recent hacking of U.S. businesses by government-sponsored criminals to an act of war...

If the attacks were indeed backed by the Chinese government, then what China did was an act of war against the US.
-- David Berlind, InformationWeek

The article is worth reading in its entirety, regardless of whether you agree with Mr. Berlind or not. You'll find it at the link below.

Is The US Afraid To Admit That China Declared War On It?

The search engine wars are over

Someone needs to break the news to Microsoft, Yahoo!, Ask, and even the venerable Yellow Pages. No one out there says they need to "Bing" something or other. Google has become a verb in our lexicon. And even though Yahoo! has been around longer, and even though Bing is getting decent reviews, more users Google topics on the web than all of the other search engines ... combined!.

Yesterday, Neilsen Reported December Search Rankings for the United States. Google was the search engine of choice for more than 67% of all internet queries, with over 6.6 million uses during December. Yahoo! came in a distant second, with about 1.4 million uses, accounting for just over 14% share. Bing and Live Search combined for just under a million searches. But that doesn't seem to justify the millions that Microsoft has invested in promoting the service. Especially when you consider that, back in June, Google's share was actually less than it was in December. Sharon Gaudin, a contributor over at ComputerWorld reports that Google's search engine market share was only 61% in Neilsen's June report.

The takeaway for me is that, when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), don't bother with trying to improve results on any search engine besides Google. The war is over. Google wins. If the web is an important lead source for your business, then focus your energy and get your Google results right. And any SEO expert that wants to do otherwise is wasting your money.

Get ready for mass market Touchscreens

On the eve of the International Consumer Electronics Show, HP has unveiled a new netbook equipped with a Touchscreen. The HP Mini 5102 enables users to navigate through Windows applications and web pages with the touch of their fingers, and ... here's the big news ... it has a starting list price of only $399.

Lenovo is in the mix, too, having introduced the IdeaPad S10-3t convertible netbook, complete with which has a 10.1-inch screen that can swivel 180 degrees and fold over to be used as touch tablet. The Lenovo has a starting price of about $550.

This means that touchscreen technology is going to explode in the coming year. IT managers will be hard-pressed to justify saying no to an executive who wants to spend what is essentially a rounding error for a machine that is exponentially easier to use than today's portable, mouse-bound, devices.

These developments will also force Dell to bring down their tablet prices or risk losing significant market share over the next three years. This is going to happen very, very quickly.

The next big question is ... will the wireless carriers be permitted to keep up with demand?

Credit where credit is due ...
Read the article at Information Week: HP Unveils Touchscreen Mini PC