Another great CES Tablet PC Gathering
The Tablet PC/UMPC Gathering at CES this afternoon was a total blast. In all we think 102 showed up, which was enough to pack the area we were using at the cheeseburger restaurant. Next year we’re going to need a bigger place!
Each year the crowd is a little different and this year was no different. There was a good showing of end-users–some bloggers, some forum members, and even a handful of enthusiastic soon-to-be Tablet owners. I also noticed that this year quite a few people brought their Tablets and UMPCs with them. That was great to see.
It also felt like there was an increased presence of Tablet manufacturers. Representatives from HP, Motion, Fujitsu, TabletKiosk, OQO and others were there–and all of them came with their most recent products. There was no single place at CES that had as many Tablets from so many different manufacturers in one place.
Besides a free meal courtesy of Microsoft, TuxReport Network (TabletPCPost.com, WhatIsNew.com, and UMPCBuzz.com) TabletLawyer.com, JKOnTheRun.com, TabletPC2.com, and MobileDemand, there was also a large number of giveaways–including four Tablets–yes four. Lenovo gave away an X61 Tablet, HP donated one of the just-released TX-2000’s, Fujitsu handed out a U810 UMPC, and Motion gave away one of their Tablets configured any way the winner wanted. And this is only a partial list of everything given away. Let’s put it this way, there were pretty good odds at winning at least something for those that attended the gathering.
I’m editing a video now which I recorded that includes many of the items given away. I’d post if now–as is–however, the video is simply too long. It needs editing. 
I wanted to live stream the whole event, however, we had connectivity problems. My EVDO service from Verizon didn’t work and others had similar problems. AT&T didn’t seem to work well either. Last year I think Layne used EVDO from Sprint in the restaurant, but unfortunately no one had Sprint service. Oh, well.
This Tablet gathering was aslo my first chance to meet Scott Eckert, CEO of Motion Computing. It also gave me a chance to talk with Otto Berkes–one of the creators of the UMPC. We compared thoughts on several of the UMPC/MID designs that we saw at CES and the direction he sees these devices heading. I only wish I’d recorded our discussion.
Which reminds me: I have a ton of pictures to post and some videos, which I hope to get up within the next day. Stay tuned.