AlphaTap is flat out cool

Write down this name: Liam Breck. If you are a VC, get out your checkbook. And you probably need to do it very quickly.

The future of computing is going to be something that is much more mobile than it is today. From cell phones to PDAs to Tablets (like Origami) to Laptops, people are going to want to work with connected social tools, like Web Office. There is going to be room for every type and size, such are the differences in people and their needs.

People will want to use mobile tools to create content as much as they consume content. That’s why the first smash hit mobile device was the cell phone. If a mobile tool can not be used to efficiently create content, it will always be at a disadvantage. The iPod is the only exception I can think of.

For the next 10 years at least, being able to create content fast means being able to input text quickly. Origami has received a lukewarm reaction because, while it looks pretty good for consuming content, it looks clumsy for creating text based content.

Liam has the solution.

Liam has invented a short-hand he calls it “Alpha-Tap“. Here’s a graphic from his site:

alhpa-tap.jpg

AlphaTap’s Lightning feature is a simple, self-teaching shorthand mechanism that is based on the most common words and word fragments in English. Some 250 words account for over 50% of English usage. These words are mapped onto the AlphaTap layout so that you can type them with just one or two pen strokes. To become productive, you only need to learn the subset of these words which you commonly use

If you don’t believe that you can most of the words you will use in two pen strokes, check out Jonathan Harris’ beautiful WordCount. WordCount rank orders the most common words in the english language according to percentage frequency of use. It is a beautiful example of the long-tail in action. Here’s a snap shot of the words around #250.

Word-Count-Longtail.jpg

If you are not sure that a finger based interface can use useful, check out this cool demo video of a multi-touch interface.

The point of all this is that, with something like Liam’s AlphaTap, Origami could be a huge success. Carry it to a meeting a work, use AlphaTap to take fast efficient notes.

Who will be the winners in the Origami size mini-tablet market? Because I think that creation of content is so important to people who blog and post to Wikis, I think the winner will be whoever makes a tool that really empowers end users. Obviously a self teaching short-hand tool like AlphaTap is needed. But so are other tools.

If you are interested, you might like to check out hrmpf’s articles on recent Apple patent applications for a tablet user interface.

Finally, you might be interested in checking out Liam’s blog: Web 2.5 : Always-On-You Web 2.0 Tools

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