Bert Keely

ombining a background in engineering with a deep interest in human physiology, Bert Keely's ultimate mission is to make the PC as easy to use as a pad of paper. He joined Microsoft five years ago to spearhead development of the Tablet PC platform, after working for eight years at Silicon Graphics.

"At Silicon Graphics, I was primarily thinking about the hardware, but we had to think about how does the OS evolve, and what kinds of apps do we need to develop to make it fully usable?" Keely says.

Inspired by a conversation with Michael Dell, Keely reasoned that the only way to develop a viable ultrapersonal computer with widespread appeal would be to join Microsoft and push software development there. Keely first worked on the development of eBook in Microsoft Reader to perfect the readability of displayed text. Then, he concentrated on optimizing the Tablet PC's other physical characteristics to meet the needs of human users.

Today, Keely continues to work with Tablet PC OEMs and component manufacturers to further improve their devices' physical features and to make the Tablet PC more applicable to horizontal markets.

"Customers are excited about the Tablet PC because of the initiatives that Microsoft made,brighter and sharper screens, more power and storage," says Doug Smith, president of Filbitron, a Toronto-based solution provider that has been selling tablet solutions for 12 years.