Microsoft founder and current chairman, Bill Gates, has tried time and time again to make tablet computing the center of the digital world. In 2002, the first Tablet PC launched. Sadly, the device never really took off. In 2005, after the Tablet PC failed to achieve what he believed it would, Bill Gates was still adamant about the future of the touch style tablet.
"We need to keep investing, both in the hardware and software side, before it moves into the mainstream... It"s not yet in the mainstream. I totally believe in the tablet."
While you might be able to say that, with the iPad, Gates" dream has finally become a reality, Bill Gates, himself, would tend to disagree. Back in February, according to electronista, Gates called the iPad "a nice reader," and nothing more. His feeling was that the iPad still needed to be more like the Tablet PC--including a pen and keyboard. He told BNET the following:
"I"m 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."
This morning, Engadget linked to the video shown below. It"s the iPad running Windows 95. While such a concoction still falls short of Gates" overall dream of tablet computing, we"re sure he"d have to agree that it"s a step in the right direction. One thing"s certain--with Windows 95 running on the iPad, the device becomes Apple"s first to run Flash.