re: ipad vs. Motion Computing. I guess it will all come down to apps. If the field is heavily sucked into the Microsoft vortex, then the ability to run Windows and its programs will probably be the deciding factor. But, if there's a cool app that does all you need, the appeal of the ipad is obvious. Handwriting, too is a huge issue. There still is really no excellent solution for writing on an iPad. (And believe me, we've tried.) It's fine, OK in some situations. But, it also depends on what you need to do with the writing. Again, is there an app for it, or not? What kind of OS (if any) will you have to sync with?

Thanks for posting the Fujitsu! I hadn't seen that one yet. It does look nice, and Fujitsus are great (though as you said, not as rugged) tablet PCs. I had their 8.9" convertible when it was new to the market (Lifebook P1600ish), but I found that I preferred tablets that used dedicated pens, not just a plastic stylus. We have a very old Motion Computing M1400 that we picked up used off of eBay a couple of years ago and completely upgraded the RAM, hard drive and put Windows 7 on it. It's slow, unfortunately, because it is an older machine, but quite serviceable. (Except after using Windows for a while you really do have to put it away or risk chucking it across the room in frustration.)

The new Fujitsu or the Motion Computing look like solid contenders. I'd always said that one real advantage of my edge was that it was like having a tablet-PC-lite for a small fraction of the cost of a tablet PC. But two new machines coming in under $1000? The times they are a changing!