Seattle, May 5, 2004 – I really expected tons of presentations about Longhorn. Even though there is Longhorn coverage during this WinHEC it is not as much as I would have thought. Remarkable is the attention for media centered PC’s. During this WinHEC it almost seems that focus is on devices for home users or at least on devices for dual use, both at home and in the office. One of those devices seems to be the TabletPC. Brought as a revolutionary concept a couple of years ago it now becomes clear that the most successful TabletPC’s are actually notebooks with added features like ink support. However, to become really successful, more applications should be available that exploit the specific added value of ink. Together with the release of Windows XP SP2, later this year, Microsoft will also release Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005. Because the hardware requirements for the TabletPC have not changed, every TabletPC owner can upgrade to this new version that has much better ink capabilities. The upgrade will be made available on the Microsoft website and is free for current TabletPC owners. The possibilities to adopt ink in applications are phenomenal. During the TabletPC talk the following example was shown for a typical home use scenario. It is possible to play a movie in a whiteboard like application and to actually add ink both to the movie or separate as comment. All ink strokes can be saved together with the movie thus creating a very personalized version of a movie. It was surprising to see how a device like a TabletPC, that originally was targeted as a very high end device for business users seems to find a way into homes.

Because there is more focus on home users there was also a presentation dedicated to PC trends in the home. Edie Adams told us that the most important trends for the PC in every day life are connectivity, entertainment, communication and technology that can hide itself. The PC at home is no longer tight to a particular place but can be taken anywhere. Therefore there will be a high demand for wireless networks. Many home users actually buy notebook computers right now to have easy access at a computer independent of the location in the house. For users it is very important to have information always available whenever and wherever there is a need for that information. For this purpose, the PC can be viewed as a very personal device. At the same time, the PC in the household becomes much more of a social device. It will be used to play games with the family, to watch TV with the family, to listen to music and to use as a picture album. Right now, many users already store their entire CD collection on the PC, because it is so much more convenient to play music from the PC. There is no need to change CD’s and all music is always available. With the enormous speed in which larger storage devices become available Microsoft expects that also entire DVD collections will be stored on the PC in the near future. There is still a lot of work to do though. The PC has to become simpler in its operation, especially to connect all kinds of devices to it. The form factors of the PC should also change. No longer an uninteresting, ugly, noisy box that nobody wants to have in the living room. Instead, the PC should be quiet and good looking, as an integral part of a living room, a piece of furniture if you like. The idea is that the PC will become a central message centre in the house. A device on which whole families store appointments, a device that routes and captures all communication, but also a device that is always on and is extremely reliable.