Microsoft founder Bill Gates has confirmed that he isn’t suffering from a chronic case of iPad envy.
According to Gates, netbooks – rather than tablets – will remain “mainstream” for various tasks requiring the use of an actual physical keyboard.
“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’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'”
Meanwhile, Brent Schlender of BNet speculated that the iPad’s launch could mark a “pivotal point” after which Apple is perceived as being to “cocksure” for its own good.
“Or, to give Apple a credit, is this simply another example of being so far ahead of the curve that most of us just don’t get it? Judging from the trajectories of the iPod and the iPhone, Apple and its developer partners will mend the iPad’s flaws sooner than we might expect,” opined Schlender.
“Love Apple or loathe it, I’d bet that eventually the combination of flexibility, programmability, connectivity, finger-power, and brute force in the marketplace will make the iPad the first genuine, interactive, high-definition Personal Universal Media Player.”
