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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

Well, it did take them about a decade to catch up with Microsoft when they introduced the iPad. Bill Gates announced tablets 15 years ago:

http://youtu.be/T5Va8XfuN9s

What really is happening is the usual trolling that happens after every Apple event.

Apple has different priorities. They'll make tablets more functional as CPU and battery improve. There will be a conversion with the desktop, or at least low-end laptops, at some point. When they put a fan in the iPad then you can question if they've lost their way.

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And Apple beat that by 8 years with the Newton.

(And Wang beat that by several years with a 3" thick monstrosity that, IIRC, went nowhere.)

Yes, the trolling reoccurs. Key is how excited the marketplace is for which product, naysayers aside. As others note: the iPod wasn't new, but it was subjectively better than anything else out there.

> (And Wang beat that by several years with a 3" thick monstrosity that, IIRC, went nowhere.)

What was this and where can I read more about it?

It was about a foot square (or more), at least 3 inches thick, had a large handle to grip, a wired stylus, and a painfully low-res B/W LCD display. I got to handle it a few times, but saw no compelling use (the concept was great, but technology was far from there). IIRC, 3 came with a Wang minicomputer at the time, late 1980's or early 1990's.

I've tried to find a picture of it several times since, but nothing yet.

http://thefinanser.co.uk/fsclub/2010/05/the-ipad-prototype-c...

This?

Apple didn't invent tablets, it made tablets usable.

Agreed. Apple and MS have completely different strategies. Apple chose to go the multiple OS route. MS is going with one OS to rule them all. (Also Apple ultimately wants to sell complete gadgets, whereas MS wants to sell software and services)

Microsoft did go multi-OS route but the Windows branding did not allow the flexibility and led to demise of Windows RT.

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