从“革”笔记本的“命”,到“是笔记本电脑的子集”,再到“是笔记本电脑的延伸(EXTENSION)”,微软对TABLET PC的评价正在一步步退缩. 一向自负的微软的口径的变化,反映出TABLET PC市场启动的艰难.“,”“Tablet PC will be the best seller of PCs in US innext 5 years, and become the mainstream of portable PCsin place of notebook PCs in a decade,” said Bill Gates.The optimistic prediction may involve an intention to winsupport from the market, but he has not been able toeffectively dispel hardware manufacturers' misgivings. Toavoid increasing contradiction, Microsoft is making com--promises. The changing approach in Microsoft's speakingabout Tablet PC clearly reveals the difficulty to triggerthe market. Although Microsoft claimed that it had al-ready had 20 hardware partners around the world andmore firms were joining, only Intel, Acer. ViewSonic,HP and Legend came as members ofthe claque on the press conference forMicrosoft's Tablet PC products atBeijing on Dec. 12. The reason whyother big firms (such as Dell and IBM)watch quietly, said an analyst, is theydon't intend to take risks and squandertheir money in breeding the market.The attitude of those leading firms hasmade those following them dare not plunge into themarket.