In a recent interview between Microsoft’s Bill gates and news site Bnet’s Brent Schendler, Gates made clear his feelings about the iPad, basically he doesn’t like it, but at the same time unwittingly or maybe not, he let out a little secret, he actually envies the iPhone.
“Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough” he said, referring to what he thought of Apple’s iPhone when it was first released.
When asked about the iPad though, the response was let us say, a lot less enthusiastic.
“You know, 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,” Gates told BNET.
“So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.’ It is a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.”
It’s no secret that Bill Gates has always been a bit sceptical about the iPhone, in public anyway, well he had to be didn’t he, so it’s quite a confession to suggest that he wished Microsoft had created it. Jobs must be pretty gleeful about that.
It’s no surprise either that he wouldn’t speak too highly of the iPad, I mean Microsoft had tried to produce a tablet computer already and it didn’t happen so he’s hardly likely to commend the attempts of anyone else trying to do the same.
To be fair though, the iPad hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations; the general consensus does seem to be that the iPad is sadly lacking in certain areas, particularly the absence of USB ports, no support for Flash and the obvious lack of content.
However, before we condemn the iPad as a total Apple blunder we have to remember that the iPhone didn’t exactly make the ground shake when it was first released, everyone then was complaining about what the iPhone couldn’t do just as they are now with the iPad.
As it turned out, with a little bit of time and a few tweaks and changes along the way the iPhone became the one of the best selling phones worldwide.
Yep, only time and the consumers will ultimately decide if the iPad eventually carves its niche or not.
