You can be as much Android fan as you want, but you have to recognize that Apple has changed the technology market as we know it. Maybe they weren't the first to do certain things, but they were the first to hit the spot and know how to sell it. There were smartphones and tablets before Apple introduced theirs, but all current devices somehow descend from the iPhone and iPad.
Tells the biography that Walter Isaacson wrote of Jobs that the idea of a touch tablet was born, in fact, before the iPhone. It was in 2002, as a result of Jobs's anger with a Microsoft engineer who was holding a tablet software that allowed users to enter information through a pointer. The Apple guru set out to show that for the tablets to succeed there should be no pointers. And we know how the story ended.
But nevertheless, the tablet concept is very old, and already appears in science fiction novels in the 50s and 60s, as 2001: Odyssey in space from Arthur C. Clarke or in The foundation from Asimov. Later they would also appear in Star Trek: the new generation, released in 1987.
First tablets: From Styalator to Apple Newton and Palm Pilot
In the 50 already appeared devices like the Styalator, a tablet capable of recognizing manual writing and digitizing it, but the first tablets themselves would not reach the eighties. Then various devices appeared that allowed to interact with computers through tactile gestures, such as Pencept. The first tablets also appeared, similar to many current e-readers, thanks to PenPoint OS, an operating system that would carry primitive tablets like the EO Personal Computer that launched AT&T. The operating system already allowed the installation of third-party applications.
The iPad was not Apple's first tablet, which in 1987 began to develop a tablet that would not launch until 1993: the Apple Newton. However, Newton had a very high price (don't tell me, Apple) and the software was not mature enough to launch, showing problems recognizing the writing.
However, he managed to gain a foothold in some areas, such as the doctor. However, the launch of PalmPilot in 1997 it was a very hard blow, which significantly reduced its market share. That year there was the return of Steve Jobs to Apple, which canceled the product. Jobs saw potential in him, but he didn't like execution. In addition, it was a personal project by John Sculley, who had fired him in 1987.
Tablet PCs