The Tablets That Paved the Way for the iPad




On this date five years ago, Steve Jobs officially introduced the iPad to the world. Few guessed it would become as big of a hit as it actually did, heralding a bustling and competitive era for mobile computing. Back when it launched, we made jokes about the name (teehee, PAD!) and mused about how this oversize iPod would never succeed.


Reasoning for the latter wasn’t necessarily misguided: The tablet was not a new idea. A slew of tablets came and went in the decades prior to the iPad. While some were confined to research laboratories, a variety of consumer options also dotted the electronics landscape in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. From these devices, Apple was quietly able to learn what worked and what didn’t, so that its 2010 tablet release wouldn’t bow to the pain points of its predecessors. The iPad succeeded for this reason, and because of newer, lighter, and more powerful mobile technologies that had never before been available: the right place, the right time, the right execution.


The first tablets started arriving in earnest beginning in 1989. Early devices like the Samsung GRiDPad and Fujitsu PoqetPad offered small touchscreen displays you could operate with a stylus in a portable (but not necessarily diminutive) size. The GRiDPad, the first consumer-focused tablet device, was even adopted for use by the U.S. Army.


The second wave of consumer slates, like the Newton MessagePad and the Palm Pilot, started to gain wider acclaim and adoption as both their size and their prices dropped. Palm’s PDAs (personal digital assistants), as they would be called, featured handwriting recognition, a shorthand alphabet for quicker touchscreen note-taking, and organization features like a date book, address book, and to-do list—things that would make their way onto cellphones, and then smartphones.


Then in the early 2000s, Microsoft tried to kickstart tablet computing with a handful of Windows XP tablets. These devices ran a full version of Windows in a slate form factor. Unfortunately, the OS wasn’t optimal for touchscreen use, and the software was too bloated to run smoothly on a tablet’s relatively paltry hardware. They didn’t end up revolutionizing the computing space as Bill Gates had originally expected.


In 2000, the nut cracked. The iPad arrived after years of rumors (indeed, Apple had been working on a tablet long before it decided to embark on the iPhone). The company had learned from the shortcomings of earlier tablets: the OS was lightweight and designed for touch input from the beginning; the size and weight were slim enough for it to be a convenient travel companion; and the battery life and processor power were robust enough for all day of use. One major change from nearly all earlier tablet models was the lack of a stylus—Jobs wanted you to use this device’s capacitive touchscreen with your fingers.


Now after five years, it seems that another tablet era could be coming to a close as chips, battery technology, and displays have become so powerful that large-screened smartphones can fulfill the needs of both a smartphone and a tablet. The iPad may be the apex of modern tablet technology, but it is also a major stepping stone in the evolution of mobile computing.



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