`The History of Tablet Computers: A timeline | ZDNet
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`zdnet.com
`
`The History of Tablet Computers: A timeline
`Today's tablet landscape is dominated by Apple's iPad and Android devices from Samsung, Google and
`others, with Windows-based tablets from Microsoft and its partners making recent inroads on the market.
`But where did all these tablets spring from?
`
` Charles McLellan March 3, 2014 -- 17:56 GMT (09:56 PST)
`
`The History of Tablet Computers
`Your age probably determines when you think tablet computers were invented: 'Millennials' (a.k.a.
`Generation Y) are unlikely to look further back than Apple's first-generation iPad in 2010; Generation X
`types may recall Microsoft's 2002 Tablet PC launch and subsequent releases; and Baby Boomers (myself
`included) with fond memories of
`, Star Trek 2001: A Space Odyssey
`
` and
`A Hitchhiker's Guide to the
`, will probably have (increasingly) vague recollections of the 1990s devices spawned by such
`Galaxy
`science fiction — Apple's Newton-based MessagePads, early Fujitsu tablets, the first IBM ThinkPad, for
`example.
`
`An evolving heritage
`For a supposedly 'new' style of computing, tablets have a lengthy and convoluted heritage (remember Ultra
`Mobile PCs? They petered out in pre-iPad days and came back as today's small form-factor tablets). To
`get an impression of that still-evolving heritage, explore our Dipity timeline (above). We've included a lot of
`tablets (and tablet/notebook convertibles and hybrids), but do not claim to have covered every significant
`product. In particular, we haven't explored PDAs (which merged with mobile phones to become today's
`smartphones and phablets), beyond the Apple MessagePad. If you recall a particularly influential device
`that we've missed, do let us know — we'll keep updating and amending the timeline.
`
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`Fu'itsu Stylistic 500
`1
`4
`
`PenPoint os
`1991
`
`,/~_-"‘
`._
`IBM ThinkPad 7001
`0:11-99:
`
`.
`
`, NéR 3125 Notepad
`I Jun 1991
`
`E0 Personal communicate:
`Apt 1993
`
`InfoPa:
`1995
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`1993
`I Fujitsu 325 Point
`1:‘ ‘/T’
`I Apple Newton MessagpPad
`3 Aug 1993
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`Window; for Pen cplrrnpuutinug 1.0
`1992
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`
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`The History of Tablet Compuiers on Dipily_
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`page 2 of 3
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`The History of Tablet Computers on [)'qJi'l}'_
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