San Francisco: a notepad
The pen-controlled size computer has always been one of Silicon Valley's most precious ideas and one of the most elusive.
Microsoft launched a new tablet system with great fanfare on Thursday, and Microsoft is betting it can succeed where dozens of Silicon Valley companies have failed.
Pencomputing's vision has been leading the most compelling business failure in Valery.
These include the failed efforts of Grid, Agilent, GoCorporation, Eo, General Magic, Apple, Momenta, etc.
For more than a year, however, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, has been promoting the functionality of a tablet that he claims will replace desktop and portable computers.
The company customized the Windows xp operating system for pen computing and designed hardware features for tablets to enhance readability.
Microsoft's marketing blitz has apparently angered small groups of Silicon Valley designers who have been pursuing these technologies long ago.
"If they really claim the heights of innovation, they're just not good at observing history," says Paul Mercer, a designer working on various hand designs.
At the beginning of the 19 th century, a pen computer was held on an Apple computer.
"It's just wrong.
"Microsoft's tablet computing concept is not a lot of believers among the pioneers of manual design.
Generations have found that consumers have largely ignored their systems.
In fact, many believe that Gates may have succumbed to the same form of technical arrogance that led to the ouster of John Sculley, partly due to the failure of the hand
Newton was held on 1993 at the Apple computer.
At the same time, some pioneers do not rule out the possibility that Microsoft may succeed where others fail.
"You have to give Microsoft credit for persistence," said Larry Tesler, who led the Apple Newton project . ".
"Too early is often the most serious mistake.
Microsoft acknowledged that its designers did not make significant progress in handwriting recognition, but tried to persuade users to use electronic ink.
"Users can scribble down their notes on a computer screen and leave them in handwritten form.
Microsoft's software will try to identify words in the background and convert them into electronic text for later searches.
Despite this feature, Silicon Valley skeptics say Microsoft's new products are too similar to existing laptops to succeed.
"This is the same old story," said Jerry Kaplan, an entrepreneur who helped find Go to build a pen computer in the late 19 th century.
"If you attach a pen to your laptop, it looks and feels like a pen and has the same restrictions.