Just found this potentially very revealing article in PC Mag (not my favorite mag anymore or, well ever but they do hit a nail every now and then) offering insight into one CEO's opinion about not only that company's users base, but more specifically, the not insubstantial portion of users who want and crave a device for academic needs.
Original article:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369340,00.asp
From this CEO's email exchange in relation to a query as to how this device will aid a student's success combined with a question why inquiries to the company's PR department when unanswered:
Quote:
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"Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade. Sorry,"
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Snippets of the alledged email exchange:
http://gawker.com/5641211/
But this is on the tails of the university/college in question beginning a program to buy every new student the device to use as part of the required gear for their courses.
To me while it is at best an obvious misunderstanding as the the purpose for the inquiry by the CEO combines with, perhaps a very poorly phrased email buy the student [it was part of an assignment given by a professor to contact this specific company], it does seem to reveal something is not right in how this CEO views the customer/user base or even anyone who asks a simple question along the lines of "...how will your device benefit my academic studies?..."
In many ways I don't think other CEO's would offer the same terse and condescending emails...and part of me still feels it's a hoax...but it sure does seem to support what history has seemed to say about this CEO when you peel away the PR puffery.
And no, I don't think the actual brand in question matters here nor the individual, but it seems to me to beg the question of which companies are going to be really "getting it" that these slate style devices are truly KEY to the future of learning & computing in general...I know for me they will be the devices I have wanted since my first 22lb Compaq "portable" which I still sweat was made by Singer Sewing Machine not Compaq (same with the Kaypro and...oh, whoever made the 3rd of this size device...) But the slate design is not new, it is just there are finally, after almost 30-years of the portable computer in use, but there are finally devices which have the power, battery life, durability combined in a highly portable package....
In the end the winner will the the device which targets the academic community at least along side the media-only consumers...while media consumption is important, if the device maker wants as much "user brand identification" as can be, not being so dismissive of the academic user would seem very key....
Anyway, I hope this ends up a hoax or simply very bad moods and poor communication between these two individuals...but if not I am sure there are a dozen companies which are eager to fill in this niche in the next 6-months and with that they could control or influence purchases of those users for a good 2-3 generations all because those companies decided to pay attention to the academic users early on...though at least one company in the "before time" tried that route with all but free hardware to schools from elementary through college and it did not do much to gain them market share. It was the business users who made that decision. However I feel this time the "winner" might well be that academic user demographic along side many professionals in the work world because the slate device is a whole different level of computing freedom.