From AllThingsD, Microsoft’s Bill Gates on Apple’s iPad:
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.’
Windows PC tablets have been around 10 years, mostly as dismal sales failures, relegated to a few tiny, niche markets. Gates seems to believe the tablet is still new.
There’s often, early in the new market, a few products that help get the category to critical mass. In the long run, people are going to buy what gives them the right price, performance, and capabilities. And does everybody want to have exactly the same thing? Probably not.
Maybe that’s why Windows continues to lose market share, and Microsoft’s Zune media player has been a sales disaster compared to Apple’s iPhone.