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| HP, Acer and Toshiba launched tablet-PC hardware at the same time that Microsoft launched its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, but after a promising start, sales have fallen sharply with analysts and manufacturers blaming Microsoft for charging too much for its operating system.
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| Chris Jones, senior analysts and director at Canalys, said that Microsoft isn't doing enough to help Tablet PC vendors, particularly in Europe: "Rather than pricing the Tablet PC OS at a premium, adding to the vendors' costs and the end-user price, it should be doing the opposite: subsidizing the vendors to help them get the market up and running," he said in a statement.
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| Last week, Acer's president Wang Chen-tang also pointed the finger at Microsoft for charging too much: "Microsoft should put more effort into working with vendors in marketing tablet PCs," he said as the No. 2 maker of tablet PCs admitted it had sold only 100,000 units in a year, which is just 5% of its overall notebook sales.
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| In Europe, the picture is even worse, with less that 100,000 units shipped in total during the year.
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| According to Canalys, HP is the leading vendor, having shipped around 28,000, which makes up 31% of the market. Acer comes in second with 23% and Toshiba is third with 16.5%.
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| Overall, in Q3 of 2003, shipments fell by 20% compared to the previous quarter. Jones said that while the market for tablet PCs remains small, software vendors will remain reluctant to develop applications specifically for the platform.
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| "If the Tablet PC is to become a significant part of mainstream mobile computing, and we think it can be, Microsoft needs to help its partners invest, promote, develop and expand their offerings," he said.
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| In association with ZDNet India |
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