Microsoft Invented The Tablet A Decade Before Apple And Totally Blew It
Apple's iPad is a revolutionary product that is cratering the PC industry. But it wasn't Steve Jobs' idea.
A full decade before Jobs launched the iPad in 2010, Bill Gates launched Microsoft's touch input tablet computer.
Here it is:
Reuters
Bill Gates with a Microsoft tablet in 2000
Two years later, Gates showed up with an improved model, a color tablet. It used the Windows XP Tablet operating system.
Here it is:
REUTERS/Jeff Christensen
Bill Gates in 2002
Unlike today, Microsoft didn't manufacture the tablet itself. Lenovo produced the tablet in 2000 and other partners, like Fujitsu, made the XP tablet in 2002. Here's a closer look at the Fujitsu tablet.
 Reuters Fujitsu Windows XP Tablet from 2002 |
So if Microsoft was a decade ahead, why did Apple become the King of the Tablets?
Last July, during an interview with Charlie Rose, Bill Gates explained, [Steve Jobs] did some things better than I did. His timing in terms of when it came out, the engineering work, just the package that was put together. The tablets we had done before, weren't as thin, they weren't as attractive."
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