IT strategy - Tablets are easy to swallow.

(From Financial Director)

Byline: Tom Berry.

Our desire for new gadgets and gizmos is insatiable. Mobile phones are multifunctional, PDAs are mobile phones and laptops have become notebooks the size of personal organisers. But there is a new remedy for our technology cravings and it comes in tablet form.

The first tablet PC prototypes were showcased by Microsoft in 2001, but reaction was muted. Comparisons with Apple's pen-based Newton device and other failed tablet precursors didn't help set the industry alight, either.

Microsoft's solution was to create a fully fledged Windows-based computer in tablet form rather than an another peripheral device like a PDA. Tablets would use state-of-the-art software to ensure almost perfect handwriting recognition, so no more pieces of paper fluttering around or lost in piles on your desk.

And now, in 2003, the tablet is here in all its sexy, silvery slimness.

The only problem is that IT analyst firm IDC estimates that only about 70,000 tablets have been sold so far, with corporate IT departments still undecided about the propriety of tablets, as opposed to desktop PCs or laptops in a business environment.