The multi-billionaire spoke with Brent Schlender of BNET and admitted that while he became envious of the iPhone, the iPad has not elicited the same reaction from him.
"You know, Iâm a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard — in other words, a netbook — will be the mainstream on that," Gates reportedly said.
"So, itâs not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didnât aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but thereâs nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"
Gates joins a chorus of technology enthusiasts and casual users alike who have said they feel they were let down by Apple's iPad announcement. One study found that while the number of users interested in buying the device tripled after it was unveiled, the lion's share have said they will not purchase an iPad.
Gates' support of tablet-style computers is nothing new It was in 2001 that he and Microsoft introduced the "Tablet PC," which was predicted to be everyone's primary computer in just a few years. However, the form-factor and input method failed to catch on.
At the D conference in 2007, Gates and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sat down together for an interview in which the two tech titans spent some time talking about the future of computing, and where tablet-style devices might fit into the mix.
"I believe in the tablet form factor," Gates said in 2007. "I think you'll have voice. I think youâll have ink. You'll have some way of having a hardware keyboard and some settings for that. And then you'll have the device that fits in your pocket, which the whole notion of how much function should you combine in there, you know, there's navigation computers, there's media, there's phone. Technology is letting us put more things in there, but then again, you really want to tune it so people know what they expect."
While Jobs didn't embrace the tablet form factor like Gates did, he did say he believed computers were going to become even more mobile, and the very idea of what consumers view as a computer could change dramatically.
"This general purpose device is going to continue to be with us and morph with us, whether it's a tablet or a notebook or, you know, a big curved desktop that you have at your house or whatever it might be," Jobs said. "So I think that'll be something that most people have, at least in this society. In others, maybe not, but certainly in this one."
Of course, Apple's latest take on the tablet is much different than the options offered by Microsoft and competitors up until this point, with the multi-touch, multimedia iPad being more akin to an iPod touch than a MacBook. Analysts expect the iPad to sell millions in its first year.
410 Comments
what does he know about the possible success of the ipad? what product besides his windows monopoly people have to suffer has been successful?
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a longtime proponent of tablet-style computing and touchscreen devices, has said he is not impressed by what he's seen of Apple's iPad.
Which is the MS "Kiss of Success" for an Apple product! That and the nervous laugh we heard from Steve Ballmer when he was expressing his views on Apple's iPhone!
If that is what is required to make a tablet a success, why have none of your efforts became known as "Gamer Changers?!" Netbook!? Really?! A netbook is a cheap copy of a cheap PC laptop... If that's mainstream then I'm happy to be odd man out, thank you very much! Oh and while it looks cool and has the potential for it's own niche market, we are still waiting on that "Courier" thingy...
Code for Microsoft's 'iPad' will be out within a year or two... maybe three... Depends on our OS...
I find it hypocritical that a marketing guy that never really invented anything except DOS says "no biggie" to something he doesn't really know anything about.
Bill Gates knows innovation like Donald Trump knows how to mop his floor.
I think how successful the iPad will be will depend a lot in what kind of applications developers dream up. Personally, I think it's on the big side and wish it were a little smaller. But if Apple came out with a version of Aperture for the iPad that let me load my photos in the field, review/edit/arrange them on the iPad, and then sync the whole project back to my desktop, then I'd say with a high degree of certainty that I'd get one.
Short of that I'd probably just stick with an iPod touch because it's more portable (while wishing it was a little bigger... got that Apple, I'd like something between the touch and the iPad )
What do you expect from Bill Gates. The man that founded the company that made computing, being on the Internet as complex and painful as you can get.