Microsoft beat Apple to the iPad

By paul.fabretti / May 31, 2010 / Innovation / 3 Comments

Not just because Microsoft are a client, not because Steve, Mark, Marc are really nice guys, but because, in 2006, Microsoft already had planned what Apple have just launched.

Interesting how this actually evolved into mini-laptops rather than what the ipad has become, but was it the ecosystem that let it down? Apps were nowhere to be seen when Origami was around in March 2006, instead, machines were literally that – Ultra Mobile PC’s – doing the same on your desktop/laptop . Wifi was far from being everywhere…and Vista promised a lot, but delivered somewhat less.


All credit to Apple, they have varnished the UMPC concept with their usual sexy gloss (my 32gb wifi is on order BTW!) but don’t be sucked into thinking that Apple were first to this. They weren’t.

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  • http://www.onegreenerday.com Tim Difford

    All good points but, y’know, Apple shipped ;)

  • http://blendingthemix.com paul.fabretti

    You’re totally right Tim. No point having a great idea if you can neither back up the potential with awesome hardware and a sustainable environment of innovation. Still, this is all easy to say after the event of the iphone which showed us just how interesting mobile computing COULD be!

  • David Cohen

    Actually, Origami did ship. It’s just that it was so poor that it sank without trace – a truly terrible user experience. Was absolutely nothing to do with the ecosystem – Origami was a Windows PC, after all, so there were no shortage of apps. But the core system was just terrible, with none of the snappy performance or light touch sensitivity that video purports to show. It’s fake.

    And Apple are not the new product innovators that everyone assumes them to be. The Mac, iPod, iPhone and iPad are all products that take existing segments and just do them better. That is why they succeed.