Is the Apple iPad the very first tablet to hit the stage?
Computer scientist Alan Kay mocked up the first one in 1968 – Dynabook. It was never actually built, but it was designed and conceived to be an educational tool for the future, for children. Tablet computers have physically been around for a good 20 years. In the late 1980s early pen computer systems were mostly built around handwriting recognition and they generated a lot of excitement. In 1991 the pen computing hype reached a peak: the pen was seen as a challenge to the mouse and pen computers as replacement for desktops. Microsoft saw a potentially serious competition to Windows computers, so it announced Pen Extension for Windows 3.1 and called them Windows for Pen Computing. Between 1992 and 1994, a number of companies introduced hardware to run Windows for Pen Computing or PenPoint, and among them the IBM ThinkPad. The initial enthusiasm soon turned to criticism because of disappointing sells. The problem was that most of the pen tablets resulted difficult to use and weren’t able to compete with desktop PCs. Pen computer companies went bankrupt and by 1995 pen computing was dead in the consumer market.
That, however, wasn’t the end of pen computing. Bill Gates had always been a believer in the technology, and in multiple occasions he has stated that slate computers were going to be the “future of computing”. In 2002 Microsoft reintroduced pen computers as the “Tablet PC”, but they proved expensive and clunky to use, failing to gain foothold in the market. Even so, this move opened the market for slate computers, mini-laptops, notebooks and netbooks. Then in 2007 came the Amazon Kindle, which lacked web surfing and computing capabilities, but it renewed the interest for super-slim format leaving the field wide open for Apple.
All this history made me realize where the power of Apple truly lies. Apple has been able to see the potential of old discarded technologies and put them back in the market at the right time. Apple understands what these technologies can do, it updates them, and it makes them more user friendly and practical, while giving them a very attractive look. Apple’s secret weapon is its marketing and branding strategy: Apple products are considered to be “cool” and “trendy”, and if you buy them that’s how they will make you feel. That’s how it’s been for the iPhone, the Macbook, and the iPod, and that’s how it’s going to be for the iPad and iPad2: shiny “new” stylish toys.
Links:
Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment