Gartner is concerned about Bluetooth. Although Dulaney has no hesitation in recommending that users buy Bluetooth-enabled handsets, he sees problems of interoperability ahead. The solution, according to Dulaney, is for the the Bluetooth Special Interest Group to agree on a certification program similar to that for Wi-Fi. If it doesn't, Microsoft will effectively take over the standard as users will simply start to seek compatibility with the Seattle flavour of Bluetooth, he says. Dulaney also fleshed out Gartner's objections to Tablet PC, saying that Microsoft needs to do some work on major applications if the tablet is to fulfil its potential. "Microsoft needs to go back to Office and rip out the text editor and replace it with Windows Journal," he said, explaining that this would facilitate stronger integration at the application level, enabling users to create "compound multimedia documents". Dulaney doesn't expect this to happen soon: "It'll take two or three iterations," he said. Despite his criticisms of the tablet Dulaney says Gartner views the concept as positive for several areas of work, and reminded the audience that tablet devices have been widely used in some market segments for several years. For prospective tablet buyers, Dulaney's advice is to go with the firms that have already been manufacturing tablets for vertical markets -- Toshiba and Fujitsu Siemens, for example. He sees the HP tablet as "nicely designed", but doesn't like the Transmeta chip that it is based on, as this introduces a risk due to uncertainties around Transmeta's future. He is also doubtful about the Acer Tablet, saying that he thinks it needs more "industrial design" work and that Acer needs to improve its support for enterprise users before businesses should consider it as an option.
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