email article printer friendly

What's Next for Tablet PC
Peter Loforte discusses Microsoft's vision for Tablet PC and the future of mobile computing.

January 18, 2005

Peter Loforte General manager of Microsoft's Tablet PC platform

VSM's editor in chief Patrick Meader discusses Microsoft's vision for Tablet PC and the future of mobile computing with Peter Loforte, general manager of Microsoft's Tablet PC platform. Learn what special challenges developers face in adapting to programming for mobile environments. Drill down on these issues in more depth with Peter at the conference in February, co-located with VSLive! in San Francisco.

PM: Where is the mobile market today?

PL: Mobile PC momentum is phenomenal right now, whether its traditional notebooks or Tablet PCs. I saw a quote recently from Intel that mentioned notebook computers outsold televisions over the holiday season. That gives you an idea of how popular mobile PCs are becoming. Laptops have outsold desktops for several years in Japan. The reason for that is fairly obvious, I think. If you can miniaturize the power of the desktop and carry it with you wherever you go, that is a compelling benefit.

For the first time in the U.S, we're beginning to see laptops and mobile PCs in general outsell desktops, not just in gross sales, but in unit sales. You will see more laptops and mobile PCs on the shelves today than you will desktop computers.

PM: Tell me about the strategy behind "Microsoft Windows Anywhere." How does it affect developers planning, architecture, and coding?

PL: Microsoft's Windows Anywhere strategy is our recognition of that fact that mobile PCs are becoming more affordable, and that more people in the professional space take mobile PCs with them to meetings, on airplanes, on business trips, and even extend that to taking laptops home and using them both for work and personal entertainment. We want developers to take advantage of all the services that are available to Windows to make them more successful in building rich applications on top of this new phenomenon. Our Windows Anywhere effort is really an initiative to make sure that developers have the information and tools necessary to build rich mobile applications.

PM: It isn't just about writing software for the 1 million Tablet PC users. It's about changing how software is written for the 50 million mobile and notebook users.

PL: Correct.

PM: What are the issues in writing software for these users, and what specifically is Microsoft doing to help developers make sure their applications work better in this environment?

PL: Developers need to be mindful of a variety of issues. For example, if my database has an application associated with it, how does that work offline? How do I synchronize data? How do I do replication? These are things that have typically been difficult to do in the past, but are getting much easier. In the past, developers have had to build their own solutions to get around these issues.

Now Microsoft is developing the infrastructure and tools to support building these kinds of apps. Another key area is battery life. How do you write an application that is smart about batteries, so your app doesn't consume all the battery life when the user is on the road? Also, developers need to keep in mind network awareness, such as being smart about how your app adapts to roaming from between various kinds of networks, including both low- and high-speed networks, and networks that are hosted at home and on the road. How do you do that in a seamless manner? Microsoft's Windows Anywhere effort is an attempt to give developers the tools they need to build rich mobile applications.