Panelists: Technology, Business Process Integration Holds More Promise

VAR Business

"My favorite computer is not just what I'm using now, but it's what I'm going to get next," said Marilyn Edling, vice president and general manager of enterprise systems for Hewlett-Packard's business customer organization. "Our demands of what we want and what we need are starting to keep up with the industry. We're starting to get an inkling of what we can do."

The panel followed a keynote speech by Microsoft, which demonstrated the new tablet PCs expected to ship this fall. Tablet PC technology and handheld technology integrating with cell phones will revolutionize the way we access information, said the panelists.

"I can't walk around [with a laptop unfolded and work. You need the form factor of the tablet. It's light, it's easy to use," said Dan Bricklin, founder and CTO of Trellix. "Most of what we do is click on links and scroll. You can do that with a pen. I'm very bullish on the tablet."

"I have a laptop, a cell phone, a RIM and a Palm. With all these different things, my biggest problem is with synchronization, such as which cradle is for what," said Chris Stone, vice chairman in the office of the CEO at Novell. "I would be a classic customer for a single device. The problem with a single device is you don't get all the features you like in one device."

Tablet technology is not without its kinks, the executives said. Issues that need to be resolved before tablet PCs take off include battery life, security and existing wireless network infrastructures, they said.

"Today, your cell phone doesn't work as you move from one area to the next," Edling said. "It's more aggravating for me to lose my cell phone in the middle of a conversation than to carry three devices right now. We've raised expectations of users to set the standards and it's holding us back."

"I've been working in the tablet space for 12 years. I started with Newton and I'm now with PalmSource," said Steve Sakoman, chief product officer at PalmSource. "Most of the barriers in the past have been with infrastructure. Now, we haven't solved battery life. If it's only good for an hour or two, the tool is useless."

"Reading a computer is not the same as reading a piece of paper. Maybe in the future it will be," said Larry Birenbaum, vice president and group general manager of the Ethernet Access Group at Cisco Systems. "And handwriting [recognition has to get going, but the tablet is a very exciting movement."

Handheld and wireless technology should lead to innovations in other areas such as imaging, but those advancements are a ways off, Stone said.

"The biggest problem with the Internet as I know it today is printing. I want to print wherever I go," he said. "I want printing to follow me. [There are companies working on intelligent printing technologies. If I'm at a hotel on the road, the network knows I'm there and I can print to a Kinko's down the corner."

Linux will play an important role in developing applications on open standards that multiple devices can use, said executives.

"Linux is real important. As Eric Schmidt has said, kids coming out of high school are using it," Bricklin said. "If they build something to run in a box, they'll use [Linux. The fact that there is Linux and it is customizable has been important to let people try different things on the Internet."