So I was reading this interesting interview with Bill Gates today, regarding his vision of a paperless world and the part that Microsoft would be playing in it. The TabletPC is really key here, and although it hasn’t been adopted quite as quickly as Microsoft originally expected, I happen to believe that the Tablet, or some form of it, is an inevitable evolution in computing.
“There’s a group of students that are going to college during this decade who, because they use the tablet in college, will, as they go into the workforce, think about the magazines they want to read and it will be obvious to them that digital is far superior,” [ Bill Gates ] says.
I’ve been operating pretty much 100% paperless for the past year because of the Tablet. The only time I ever write with a pen is when I sign checks or other official documents, and the only paper trail I leave is in the form of receipts. Because practically every project we have is electronic, I don’t need to print out studies, and I never rough-sketch on paper anymore. Every novel, comic book or magazine I’ve acquired over the past 12 months is digital, each volume is searchable and annotate-able, and you don’t even need a book light to read any of it.
The big obstacle for a lot of people I think, is that they just want simplicity, and there’s nothing simpler than having a traditional paper-based organizer, with a combination of post-its and refrigerator magnets for reminders. Microsoft’s OneNote comes close to this level of simplicity, but there are still a bunch of places where it reverts to its overly-complicated Office roots.
And then there are those romantics who can’t appreciate a book they can’t smell and feel, as if a story would otherwise be affected by the medium it was being shipped in.
And of course there’s the cost. Since most Tablets costs 50-100% more than their laptop counterparts, it can be pretty tough convincing people to try them out just because they’re the wave of the future.
"The encyclopedia was the first [ traditional ] book to go. It’s way cheaper, way more up-to-date. It doesn’t smell as good, but otherwise we’re a winner."
Check out the rest of the article here, which continues with some discussion on the recent Sun/Google announcement and Gates’ thoughts on the XBox 360.