iPad will struggle without pen and keyboard: Bill Gates
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 11 February 2010, 23:56 IST   |    2 Comments
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iPad will struggle without pen and keyboard: Bill Gates
Bangalore: Bill Gates has criticized Apple's iPad saying that it will not be able to reach critical mass as it does not have features like Pen or keyboard. He admits that he sees the Apple device as a "nice reader" but says he's not envious of the design. While the iPhone was clearly an improvement versus Windows Mobile, the iPad isn't enough like a conventional portable to break through, Gates says, according to electronista. "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," he tells 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." Gates has been supporting Tablet PC format since it was unveiled in 2001 but says in the nine years since the designs first appeared, no models have had significant traction among the general public and have largely relegated the designs to niche markets like doctors and warehouse work. Netbooks have also come in tablet form but are still dominated by traditional designs that often cost less and carry a smaller profile. When introducing the iPad, Apple's Steve Jobs specifically attacked netbooks as being too slow and running poor software. He also noted that the iPad can often weigh half as much as a netbook and should be much easier to hand-hold.

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