Tablet PC- Difficulty in crossing the Chasm

Just last week I came across a person who happened to be carrying a Tablet PC... It brought back memories from 2003, when I was with Digit magazine, that the hype of a Tablet PC had just started. every media covered the product as if there was no end to it and the product was probably the best thing that happened to computing after Apple gave the world the MAC or IBM, the PC... and then suddenly it was totally out of the picture with the product not being seen at all or practically no manufacturer today producing it... some blamed it on the high cost, some blamed it on applications not being up to the mark...

The case however reminded me of the book "Crossing the chasm" by Geoffrey Moore, who beautifully put across how technology products need to be marketed in a different way to ensure that the product goes beyond the early adopters and gets accepted in the early majority...

Like most technology adoption life cycle, the early adopters do lap up a product that has been just introduced in the market. but unlike the others, there is a large gap between the EA and the EM that needs to be fathomed with great effort. the early indication shown by the EA only indicates that the product has a potential, but the true test lies in the ease in which the product cane be easily accepted by the EM and hence make it a success... the problem would probably lie at Microsoft's end to not promote the product enough to find its acceptance with the Majority...