TigerDirect is selling my Compaq TC1000 for $999. I have been questioning how much the Tablet’s handwriting recognition abilities matter to me and whether I should sell my Tablet on eBay and buy a Sony VAIO or an IBM ThinkPad instead.
Intel has done a really crappy job marketing their Centrino brand. Most people have no clue that Centrino is a bundle and not a chip. The clock speeds are notably lower than the mobile P4 processor, and the AMD and Apple have already struggled with educating consumers about clock cycles.
Wireless Internet is the driving force for notebook sales in my mind. I explain 802.11 wireless Internet to people by relating it to a cordless phone in your house. If you are within range, your voice travels over radio waves to a base station that passes on that information to a large grid, en route to your final destination. Lots of people want to be able to plop a business laptop anywhere in their house and get their work done. Or lay out in a hammock accessing the corporate Intranet over VPN.
I write software targeted at Microsoft Windows, so I will not be buying a PowerBook any time soon. Plus I get whatever software I need from Microsoft for free or next to nothing.