Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, flanked by top executives from major computer makers, has launched the Tablet PC, which allows users to write on the screen of a flat, notebook-style computer.
Users of the long-promised device, a flat laptop-style computer, can annotate documents, jot down and exchange notes and convert them to text or save them as-is.
The Tablet PC is targeted at people on the go, mainly office workers rushing from one meeting to another who need to take notes while using e-mail, presentations and documents.
The Tablet PC is debuting at a time when PC sales are slowing amid a weak economy and sluggish corporate spending.
"This is a reaffirmation of the kinds of things that have driven PCs since the beginning," Gates told journalists on Thursday, saying he thought "hundreds of thousands" of the devices would be sold.
The high-tech tool is being targeted at "corridor warriors", or people whose days are filled with meetings.
Microsoft is also betting that professionals such as doctors and lawyers will be a key market for the note-taking PC, as well as most large corporations.
Gates was accompanied by Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina and executives from Acer, NEC, Toshiba and other companies that will make Tablet PCs, which will run Microsoft software.
Microsoft's early attempts to get pen-based computing off the ground failed and Apple Computer Corp.'s Newton, the precursor to current handheld computers, was also a commercial flop though one that was hailed as visionary.
Determined to avoid that fate, Microsoft has already invested some $400 million (253 million pounds) in development and research.
HP's Fiorina said the Tablet PCs showed that innovation in personal computing wasn't dead.
"What these products are about is the inexorable march of technology deeper and deeper into the fabric of our lives," Fiorina said.