Tablet PC Actually Works
All my Mac friends are going to have an heart attack, because I an about to say something even I did not expect myself to say: I like Tablet PC! (Whew... that took some effort!) I just received a Lenovo X41 ThinkPad and have been playing around with it for about two days.
Context & Ripple Effects
The story closes a loop that started in October 2005, when this same commentator ordered a Tablet PC on a whim, then spent a month talking himself into the Lenovo X41 form factor before buying it. What makes the February 2006 verdict notable is who is delivering it: a broadband commentator whose audience skews Mac, writing under a headline that concedes surprise at his own conclusion.
First-order effects
- Lenovo gets an unsolicited credibility boost for the X41 from precisely the reviewer demographic — Mac-adjacent, historically skeptical of Windows pen computing — least likely to praise it.
Second-order effects
- Fellow Mac-camp commentators and their readers lose the easy dismissal of Tablet PCs as a failed niche, forcing the category to be evaluated on hardware merit rather than platform loyalty.
Third-order effects
- If endorsements like this accumulate, pen-based notebooks shift from vertical niches such as field sales and healthcare toward ordinary laptop-buyer consideration sets, pressuring every Windows OEM to offer a convertible line.
The trend: Tablet PCs were slowly earning mainstream credibility through skeptical converts years before touch interfaces reset the category.