OneNote "12" and the Tablet PC
I promised some time ago to write about the Tablet experience in OneNote 12 and how it has changed. This is a tricky topic to cover since there are still a lot of people out there who think OneNote is only or primarily meant to be used on Tablets.
Context & Ripple Effects
Chris Pratley's post lands a year after Tablet-focused bloggers like Craig Pratley's peer community were still framing OneNote as the killer app that would justify buying a Tablet PC — see the Tablet world wishlist from November 2005, which treated inking apps as the category's make-or-break software. Pratley is now pushing back on exactly that framing, confirming that Microsoft does not position OneNote as a Tablet-only or even primarily Tablet product.
First-order effects
- Microsoft repositions OneNote 12 as a general-purpose note-taking application for all Windows users, with the Tablet/inking experience presented as an enhanced mode rather than the product's reason to exist.
- Tablet PC owners who bought machines partly on the strength of OneNote learn the roadmap no longer treats their hardware as the app's center of gravity — inking improves in OneNote 12, but as an option.
Second-order effects
- Decoupling OneNote from Tablet hardware widens its potential install base across ordinary laptops and desktops, which in turn gives Tablet makers a broader software ecosystem to sell into rather than a single flagship dependency.
- Rival note-taking and PIM vendors face an Office-bundled competitor whose reach is no longer capped by Tablet market share, raising the bar for standalone handwriting-first applications.
Third-order effects
- If Microsoft's pattern holds — pen input as an accelerator layered onto mainstream software rather than a gate requiring special hardware — the industry drifts toward input-method-agnostic productivity apps, weakening the 'killer app' argument that has anchored niche form factors like the Tablet PC.
The trend: Productivity software is decoupling from specialized input hardware, with stylus support becoming an enhancement to mainstream applications rather than the justification for a separate device category.