History of tablet computers

The tablet computer and the associated special operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and thus the development of tablets has deep historical roots.

The depth of these roots can be quite surprising to people who are only familiar with current commercial products. For example, the first patent for an electronic tablet used for handwriting was granted in 1888.^[1] The first patent for a system that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the handwriting motion was granted in 1915.^[2] The first publicly-demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting text recognition instead of a keyboard for working with a modern digital computer dates to 1956.^[3]

In addition to many academic and research systems, there were several companies with commercial products in the 1980s: Pencept, Communications Intelligence Corporation, and Linus were among the best known of a crowded field. Later, GO Corp. brought out the PenPoint OS operating system for a tablet computer product: one of the patents from GO corporation was the subject of recent infringement lawsuit concerning the Tablet PC operating system.^[4]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early tablets 1.2 Microsoft Tablet PC 1.3 Apple's iPad 1.4 Non-Apple post-PC tablet computers 1.5 Post-PC tablet market share 2 Timeline 2.1 Before 1950 2.2 1950s 2.3 1960s 2.4 1980s 2.5 1990s 2.6 2010s 3 See also 4 References

History

Early tablets

The tablet computer and the associated special operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and thus the development of tablets has deep historical roots. The depth of these roots can be quite surprising to people who are only familiar with current commercial products. For example, the first patent for an electronic tablet used for handwriting was granted in 1888.^[1] The first patent for a system that recognized handwritten characters by analyzing the handwriting motion was granted in 1915.^[2] The first publicly-demonstrated system using a tablet and handwriting text recognition instead of a keyboard for working with a modern digital computer dates to 1956.^[3] Alan Kay attempted to formulate his Dynabook concept as a tablet as early as 1968; to this day, his concept has not yet been fully realized.

In addition to many academic and research systems, there were several companies with commercial products in the 1980s: Pencept, Communications Intelligence Corporation, and Linus were among the best known of a crowded field. Later, GO Corp. brought out the PenPoint OS operating system for a tablet product: one of the patents from GO corporation was the subject of recent infringement lawsuit concerning the Tablet PC operating system.^[4]

In 1987 Apple Computer started its tablet project, which considered release of devices of three sizes, with the one eventually released in 1993, Apple Newton, being the smallest (yet it was quite substantial device with 6" screen and 800 grams of weight).^[5]

In 1994 media company Knight-Ridder made a concept video of a tablet device with a color display and a focus on media consumption. ^[6] The company didn't create it as a commercial product because of deficiencies of weight and energy consumption in display technology.

In 1996, The Webbook Company announced the first Internet-based tablet, then referred to as a Web Surfboard, that would run Java and utilize a RISC processor.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} However, it never went into production.

One early implementation of a Linux tablet was the ProGear by FrontPath. The ProGear used a Transmeta chip and a resistive digitizer. The ProGear initially came with a version of Slackware Linux, but could later be bought with Windows 98.

Microsoft Tablet PC

In 1999, Microsoft attempted to re-institute the by-then decades-old tablet concept by assigning two well-known experts in the field, from Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, to the project.^[12]

In 2000 Microsoft coined the term Microsoft Tablet PC for tablet PCs built to Microsoft's specification, and running a licensed specific tablet enhanced version of its Microsoft Windows OS.^[13][14] Microsoft Tablet PCs were targeted to address business needs mainly as note-taking devices, and as rugged devices for field work.^[15] In the health care sector, tablet computers were intended for data capture – such as registering feedback on the patient experience at the bedside.

Tablet PCs failed to gain popularity in the consumer space because of unresolved problems.^[16] The existing devices were too heavy to be held with one hand on extended periods, the specific software features designed to support usage as a tablet (such as finger and virtual keyboard support) were not present in all contexts,^[17][18] and there were not enough applications specific to the platform ^[19] - legacy applications created for desktop interfaces made them not well adapted to the slate format.

Apple's iPad

The tablet computer market was reinvigorated by Apple through the introduction of the iPad device in 2010.^[20] While the iPad places restrictions on the owner to install software^[21][22][23] thus deviating it from the PC tradition, its attention to detail for the touch interface^[24] is considered a milestone in the history of the development of the tablet computer^[16] that defined the tablet computer as a new class of portable device, different from a laptop PC or netbook.^[25] A WiFi-only model of the tablet was released in April 2010, and a WiFi+3G model was introduced about a month later, using a no-contract data plan from AT&T. Since then, the iPad 2 has launched, bringing 3G support from both AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The iPad has been characterized by some as a tablet computer that mainly focuses on media consumption such as web browsing, email, photos, videos, and e-reading, even though full-featured, Microsoft Office-compatible software for word processing (Pages), spreadsheets (Numbers), and presentations (Keynote) were released alongside the initial model. One month after the iPad's release Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc. released a version of the Bento database software for it.^[26] With the introduction of the iPad 2 Apple also released full-featured first party software for multi-track music composition (GarageBand) and video editing (iMovie). As of the release of iOS 5 in October 2011 iPads no longer require being plugged in to a separate personal computer for initial activation and backups, eliminating one of the drawbacks of using a non-PC architecture-based tablet computer.

On May 20, 2010, IDC published a press release defining the term media tablet as personal devices with screens from 7 to 12 inches, lightweight operating systems "currently based on ARM processors" which "provide a broad range of applications and connectivity, differentiating them from primarily single-function devices such as ereaders".^[27] IDC also predicted a market growth for tablets from 7.6 million units in 2010 to more than 46 million units in 2014. More recent reports show predictions from various analysts in the range from 26 to 64 million units in 2013.^[28] On March 2, 2011 Apple announced that 15 million iPads had been sold in three fiscal quarters of 2010,^[29] double the number that IDC had predicted.

Non-Apple post-PC tablet computers

Early competitors to Apple's iPad in the market for tablet computers not based on the traditional PC architecture were the 5" Dell Streak, released in June 2010, and the original 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab, released in September 2010.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, over 80 new tablets were announced to compete with the iPad. Companies who announced tablets included: Motorola with its Xoom tablet (Android 3.0), Samsung with a new Samsung Galaxy Tab (Android 2.2), Research in Motion demonstrating their BlackBerry Playbook, Vizio with the Via Tablet, Toshiba with the Android 3.0 – run Toshiba Thrive, and others including Asus, and the startup company Notion Ink. Many of these tablets are designed to run Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google's mobile operating system for tablets, while others run older versions of Android like 2.3, or a completely different OS such as the BlackBerry Playbook's QNX.^[30] Other than the Motorola Xoom, by the time most competitors managed to get devices of comparable size and price to the original iPad on the market, though, Apple in March 2011 had already released their second generation iPad 2.

Hewlett-Packard announced its TouchPad based on the WebOS system in June 2011. HP released it a month later in July, only to discontinue it after less than 49 days of sales, becoming the first casualty in the post-PC tablet computer market.^[31][32] The fire sale on TouchPad tablets when its price was dropped from U.S. $499 to as low as $99 after it was discontinued resulted in a surge of interest.^[33] This dramatic increase in its popularity^[34] potentially raised its market share above all other non-Apple tablets, at least temporarily.

In September 2011 Amazon.com announced the Kindle Fire, a 7" tablet deeply tied into their Kindle ebook service, Amazon Appstore, and other Amazon services for digital music, video, and other content. The Kindle Fire runs on Amazon's own custom fork of v2.3 of the Android operating system,^[35] and with its use of Amazon's cloud services for accelerated web browsing and remote storage Amazon has set it up to have very little other connection back to Google, aside from supporting Gmail as one of the several webmail services it can access.^[35] At a cost of only U.S. $199 for the Kindle Fire it has been suggested that Amazon's business strategy is to make their money on selling content through it, as well as the device acting as a storefront for physical goods sold through Amazon.^[36][37] Besides the Kindle Fire's low price, reviewers have also noted that it is polished on its initial release, in comparison to other tablets that often needed software updates.^[38]

Despite the large number of competing tablets released in 2011, so far none of them have managed to gain considerable traction as the market continued to be dominated by the iPad and iPad 2. Several manufacturers had to resort to deep discounts to move excess inventory, as what happened with the HP TouchPad (after its announced discontinuation) and the BlackBerry Playbook. It has been suggested that many companies, in their rush to jump on the "tablet bandwagon", had released products that might had had decent hardware but lacked refinement and came with software bugs that needed updates.^[39][40]

Post-PC tablet market share

According to IDC, Apple's iPad accounted for 83% of all "media tablet" sales in 2010.^[41] At the unveiling of the iPad 2 in March 2011 Steve Jobs claimed that the iPad held more than 90% market share, but the difference between the figures could be explained by the difference between the amount of hardware shipped into the channel versus the number that have been actually sold.^[42]

As of August 2011, the iPad and iPad 2 have continued to dominate sales, outselling Android and other rival OS tablets by a ratio of eight to one.^[44][45] Apple's iPad held 66 percent of the global tablet market in Q1 of 2011, but the share is predicted to drop to 58 percent by the end of the year due to the influx of new products, mostly Android tablets. Technology experts suggest that Apple is getting court injunctions to stop the slide, although these injunctions are only preliminary measures as Apple has to provide more substantial evidence in subsequent court proceedings that the design of competing products infringed its patents or copied their designs in order to make any bans permanent. These cases take months or even years to come to court, unless there is no settlement, and if Apple loses it will be liable for the business lost by a competitor due to the injunction. Although risky, experts say that this kind of strategy gives time for Apple to hold off rivals and grab even greater market share with their iPad, since it is a market that is developing fast where Apple leads, regardless of the damages that they have to pay if they lose the case. Google's David Drummond complained "They (Apple) want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation."^[46]

On September 14, 2011 IDC announced that in the second calendar quarter of 2011 the market share of the iPad increased to 68.3% from 65.7% in the previous quarter, while market share for Android-based tablets decreased from 34.0% the previous quarter down to 26.8% in the second quarter. Besides being affected by the introduction of the iPad 2 in March 2011 this can also be partially attributed to the introduction of RIM's PlayBook tablet, which took 4.9% share of the market in the quarter.^[43]

On September 22, 2011 Gartner lowered their forecast for sales of tablet computers based on the Android OS by 28 percent from the previous quarter’s projection,^[47] explaining that "Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications." Further, they state that they expect the iPad to have a "free run" through the 2011 holiday season and that Apple will "maintain a market share lead throughout our forecast period by commanding more than 50 percent of the market until 2014."^[48] Gartner revised their projection of Apple's worldwide tablet market share at the end of 2011 up to 73.4% after their previous projection of 68.7% for the year.

In October 2011 at the Launch Pad conference Ryan Block from gadget site gdgt showed slides identifying the makeup of the site's users who bought tablets in 2011 consisting of 76% iPad (39% iPad 2, 37% original iPad), 6% HP TouchPad, and no other tablet at over 4%. He noted that the numbers did not include previous purchases of the iPad or other tablets in 2010. In a breakdown by platform he showed a chart indicating Apple's iOS at 76%, Google's Android at 17%, HP's webOS at 6%, and RIM's PlayBook OS at 2%.^[49]

In China, according to an AlphaWise survey of 1,553 Chinese consumers across 16 cities over the summer of 2011, Apple's iPad currently holds a 65% share of that nation's tablet market. When asked about future purchases, 68% of those surveyed indicated an intent to buy an iPad, versus other brands' shares of 10% for Asus, 8% for Lenovo, 6% for Samsung, and 3% or less for any other brand.^[50]

According to Forbes & eMarketer, Advertisers will spend nearly $1.23 billion on mobile advertising in 2011 in the US, up from $743 million last year.By 2015, the US mobile advertising market is set to reach almost $4.4 billion. This includes spending on display ads (such as banners, rich media and video), search and messaging-based advertising, and covers ads viewed on both mobile phones and tablets.^[51]

Timeline

Before 1950

• 1888: U.S. Patent granted to Elisha Gray on electrical stylus device for capturing handwriting.^[1][52]
• 1915: U.S. Patent on handwriting recognition user interface with a stylus.^[2][53]
• 1942: U.S. Patent on touchscreen for handwriting input.^[54][55]
• 1945: Vannevar Bush proposes the Memex, a data archiving device including handwriting input, in an essay As We May Think.^[56]

1950s

• Tom Dimond demonstrates the Styalator electronic tablet with pen for computer input and software for recognition of handwritten text in real-time.^[3]

1960s

• Early 1960s
  • RAND Tablet invented.^[57][58] The RAND Tablet is better known than the Styalator, but was invented later.

• Late 1960s
  • Alan Kay of Xerox PARC proposed a notebook computer, optionally using pen input, called the Dynabook: however the device is never constructed or implemented with pen input.
• 1966
  • In the science fiction television series Star Trek, crew members carry large, wedge-shaped electronic clipboards, operated through the use of a stylus.
• 1968
  • Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick imagines a flatscreen tablet device wirelessly playing a streaming video broadcast in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

1980s

• 1982
  • Pencept of Waltham, Massachusetts markets a general-purpose computer terminal using a tablet and handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard and mouse.^[59]
  • Cadre System markets the Inforite point-of-sale terminal using handwriting recognition and a small electronic tablet and pen.^[60]
• 1985
  • Pencept^[61] and CIC^[62] both offer PC computers for the consumer market using a tablet with handwriting recognition instead of a keyboard and mouse. Operating system is MS-DOS.
• 1987
  • The Knowledge Navigator concept piece by Apple Computer.

• 1989
  • The first commercially available tablet-type portable computer was the GRiDPad^[63] from GRiD Systems, released in September. Its operating system was based on MS-DOS.
  • Wang Laboratories introduces Freestyle, an application that captured a screen from a DOS application, and let users add voice and handwriting annotations. It was a sophisticated predecessor to later note-taking applications for systems like tablet computers.^[64] The operating system was MS-DOS
  • In partnership with Fujitsu, the Poqet Computer Corporation announced the arrival of the Poqet PC.

1990s

• 1991
  • The Momenta Pentop was released.^[65]
  • GO Corporation announced a dedicated operating system, called PenPoint OS, with control of the operating system desktop via handwritten gesture shapes.^[66][67]
  • NCR released model 3125 pen computer running MS-DOS, Penpoint OS or Pen Windows.^[68]
  • The Apple Newton entered development; although it ultimately became a PDA, its original concept (which called for a larger screen and greater sketching abilities) resembled the hardware of a tablet computer.
• 1992
  • GO Corporation shipped the PenPoint OS for general availability and IBM announced IBM 2125 pen computer (the first IBM model named "ThinkPad") in April.^[69]
  • Microsoft releases Windows for Pen Computing as a response to the PenPoint OS by GO Corporation.
• 1993
  • Fujitsu releases the Poqet PC the first pen tablet to use an integrated wireless LAN^[70]
  • Apple Computer announces the Newton PDA, also known as the Apple MessagePad, which includes handwriting recognition with a stylus.
  • The IBM releases the ThinkPad, IBM's first commercialized portable tablet computer product available to the consumer market, as the IBM ThinkPad 750P and 360P^[71]
  • BellSouth released the IBM Simon Personal Communicator, an analog cellphone using a touchscreen and display. It did not include handwriting recognition, but did permit users to write messages and send them as faxes on the analog cellphone network, and included PDA and email features.
  • AT&T introduced the EO Personal Communicator combining PenPoint with wireless communications.
• 1994
  • Knight-Ridder concept video of a tablet device with focus on media consumption.^[6]
• 1996
  • The Digital Equipment Corporation releases the DEC Lectrice.
• 1999
  • The "QBE" pen computer created by Aqcess Technologies wins Comdex Best of Show.^[72]
• 2000
  • PaceBlade develops the first device that meets the Microsoft's Tablet PC standard^[73] and received the "Best Hardware" award at VAR Vision 2000
  • The "QBE Vivo" pen computer created by Aqcess Technologies ties for Comdex Best of Show.
• 2001
  • Bill Gates of Microsoft demonstrates the first public prototype of a Tablet PC (defined by Microsoft as a pen-enabled computer conforming to hardware specifications devised by Microsoft and running a licensed copy of the "Windows XP Tablet PC Edition" operating system)^[74] at Comdex.
• 2002
  • Microsoft releases the Microsoft Tablet PC.
• 2003
  • PaceBlade receives the "Innovation des Jahres 2002/2003" award for the PaceBook Tablet PC from PC Professional Magazine at the Cebit
  • Fingerworks^[75] develops the touch technology and touch gestures later used in the Apple iPhone.
• 2005
  • Nokia launches the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.
• 2006
  • Samsung introduces the Samsung Q1 UMPC.
  • Windows Vista released for general availability. Vista included the functionality of the special Tablet PC edition of Windows XP.
  • On Disney Channel Original Movie, Read It and Weep, Jamie uses a Tablet PC for her journal.
• 2007
  • Axiotron introduces Modbook, the first (and only) tablet computer based on Mac hardware and Mac OS X at Macworld.^[76]
  • Archos launches Archos 605 WiFi, a PMP with WiFi. Virtually a tablet pc.
  • Apple launches iPod touch, an mp3 player with WiFi. It took Apple two years to turn this concept into a tablet pc.
• 2008
  • In April 2008, as part of a larger federal court case, the gesture features of the Windows/Tablet PC operating system and hardware were found to infringe on a patent by GO Corp. concerning user interfaces for pen computer operating systems.^[4] Microsoft's acquisition of the technology is the subject of a separate lawsuit.^[77][78]
  • HP releases the second multi-touch capable tablet: the HP TouchSmart tx2 series.^[79]
• 2009
  • Asus announces a tablet netbook, the EEE PC T91 and T91MT, the latter with a multi-touch screen.
  • Always Innovating announced a new tablet netbook with an ARM CPU.
  • Motion Computing launched the J3400.

2010s

• 2010
  • MobileDemand launches the xTablet T7000 Rugged Tablet PC which runs a full Windows OS and includes an integrated numeric keypad.
  • Fusion Garage releases the JooJoo, running Linux.
  • Apple unveils the iPad, running Apple iOS.
  • Samsung unveils the Galaxy Tab, running Google Android.
  • Neofonie releases the WeTab, a MeeGo-based slate tablet PC, featuring an 11.6 inch multi-touch screen at 1366×768 pixels resolution.^[80][81][82]
  • MobileDemand launches the xTablet T7000 Rugged Tablet PC which runs a full Windows OS and features include an integrated numeric keypad, bar code scanner, credit card reader, etc.
  • Quaduro Systems unveils the 10" QuadPad 3G Plus, a 900 gram Microsoft Windows based 3G tablet PC with 8 hours of battery life.
  • bModo launches the bModo12 which runs the Windows 7 OS and features include 11.6" TFT-LCD display, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, USB2.0, SDHC slot, unlocked SIM card Slot, miniHDMI connector, OMTP Jack, a webcam, a mic, etc.
  • Dixons Retail plc unveils the Advent Vega, a 10" tablet PC running Android 2.2, having a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra chipset, 512 Mb of RAM and ROM, 1.3 MP camera, WiFi b/g connectivity, Bluetooth 2.1, a micro SD card slot, a USB port and a 16h battery life for audio playback and 6.5h for 1080p video.^[83]
  • Dell Announces the Inspiron Duo A flip screen Netbook and Tablet PC hybrid
  • HP releases the Slate 500, running a full-version of Windows 7
• 2011
  • Motorola releases Xoom a 10 inch tablet running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
  • RIM releases BlackBerry Playbook running BlackBerry Tablet OS, based on QNX Neutrino
  • MobileDemand announces the high-performance xTablet C1200 Rugged Convertible Tablet PC running a full Windows 7 OS featuring a 12" sunlight-readable display, keyboard and finger touch data entry, full color camera, and meets MIL-STD 810G standards for ruggedness.
  • Asus announces the EEE Pad MeMO (7 inch tablet), EEE Slate EP121 (Windows 7 tablet), EEE Pad Transformer (10 inch tablet with Android and docking keyboard that transforms it into a laptop form factor) and EEE Pad Slider (10 inch tablet with sliding screen over the QWERTY keyboard) [all tablets use IPS display]
  • Dell showcases the Streak 7 tablet and says it's working on the 10 inch Streak 10
  • ZTE announces the ZTE V11 that runs Android 3.0, and the Z-pad.^[84]
  • Apple announces the iPad 2
  • Toshiba announces the Toshiba Tablet, a 10 inch tablet powered by a Tegra 2 process and Android 3.0 Honeycomb ^[85]
  • Samsung announces Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9, the world's thinnest tablets, running Android 3.0 Honeycomb with Touchwiz UX User Interface.
  • HP releases the HP TouchPad with webOS [HP Touchpad] & withdraws it in August 2011 (a couple of months later).]

See also

• Tablet computer
• Early tablet computers
• Comparison of tablet computers

References