Who Actually Invented Tablet PC (Tablet Computer)?

Discovering or not the history of discovery of a tablet computer or tablet PC is not the beginning of the emergence of ipad by the Apple company. Long before the advent of ipad, the concept of tablet computer has long been thought by the manufacturers of electronic gadgets.

Just look in the movie 'Star Trek: The Original Series' in 1966 where in a scene shows usage of a sophisticated portable device which then we are now familiar with the name of tablet pc or tablet computer.

How History of Tablet PC Development (Tablet Computer)

The first idea about tablet pc (Tablet Computer) came from a computer scientist named Alan Kay. In 1972, the concept of tablet pc (Tablet Computer) that he called Dynabook.

Where he explains in detail that the device is a personal computer device that is suitable for children and has a complete hardware components such as screen, processor, and storage memory.

At that time Alan Kay imagined Dynabook weighs less than 1 kilogram, and has a brightness of about 1 million pixels and has its own power and stylus or pen.

Alan Kay's idea of ​​tablet pc (Tablet Computer) is very interesting considering that year the laptop and home computer is still a new thing and the laptop has not been created.

At the end of the 80s, Alan Kay's idea came true with the emergence of the world's first Tablet PC ( GridPad Tab) . GridPad is the first Tablet PC (PC Tablet) to be sold in bulk by Grid Systems , a startup company based in Silicon Valley, USA.

GridPad, the First Generation Tablet PC in the World

Gridpad Tablet PC is a Tablet computer that uses touch screen technology ( Touchsreen) which measures about 9 x 12 inches and uses MS-DOS operating system like most computers at that time and equipped with 80 MHz processor type 10 MHz, 1 MB of memory and use the screen Monocrom CGA with a resolution of about 640 × 400.

In addition the device is equipped with a stylus for drawing or design and can be connected to a workstation computer and also weighs about 2 pounds. The Gridpad specification is far from what Alan Kay thinks though 20 years later the idea was realized by Steve Jobs via Apple's Ipad. The selling price of Gridpad time is quite expensive around $ 3000.

Gridpad at that time quite in demand in the market with the most consumers are large companies and government agencies to make Gridpad producers Grid Sytems managed to reap the sale of up to 30 million US dollars. Until then came the Palm PDA device (Personal Digital Assistants) made by an engineer named Jeff Hawkins.

PDA ( Personal Digital Assistants ), When Tablets Become a More Simple Shape

Jeff Hawkins

The emergence of the use of PDA among the people make the use of Tablet PC became unpopular again. In 1993 Apple unveiled its PDA device called Newton MessagePad  which has many features and advantages that then immediately shift the popularity of Gridpad Tablet PC. This device is also what many people say is the forerunner of the emergence of Ipad.

The use of PDAs became more popular in 1996 when the emergence of Palm (PDA) devices made by Jeff Hawkins of the Palm Computing company. Apple, Microsoft and Palm compete when it becomes a PDA manufacturer.

In the 90s PDAs mushroomed and became the lifestyle trend of the community when it shifted the popularity of tablet PCs. But in 1994, Fujitsu launched a tablet PC called Stylistic 500 and then refined by launching type Stylistic 1000 which is equipped with intel processor and windows 95 as its operating system. But Fujitsu's artificial tablet is too expensive about 2,900 US dollars plus size is quite heavy.

Tablet OS Windows Xp

Entering 2002, Microsoft then released a tablet PC that uses windows XP operating system and when it's Microsoft Founder Bill Gates said that Tablet PC will become very popular in the future.

The sinking of the PDA and the return of the Tablet PC Era

Ipad and Samsung Tab

Entering the year 2010, Alan Kay idea then became a statement after Steve Jobs, founder Apple Computer introduced the Ipad. A Tablet with touch screen technology has a sleek, lightweight shape and enough battery power.

The emergence of the Ipad makes the trend of Tablet PC use again. The success of Apple with Ipad products makes other manufacturers competing to create a Tablet like Samsung with Samsung Tab that uses Android as its operating system and Microsoft Windows Tablet launches.