Bill Gates: ‘There’s nothing on iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it’’

“Let’s face it,” Brent Schlender commands for BNET. “There are enough valid quibbles about the iPad that it seems as if the product might have been rushed out the door, much like the company’s last big dud, AppleTV.”

Schlender continues, “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked Jobs’ longtime rival, Bill Gates, what he thought of the iPad. After all, Gates has been a proponent of tablet computers for years… Gates told me he isn’t sold.”

You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that… It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman

This is what Microsoft has done instead, after a decade of “work” so far: AP reviews Archos 9 Windows tablet: Sluggish and lethargic, the Windows tablet experience is poor – February 10, 2010

Schlender continues, “So I can’t help but wonder: Does the iPad unveiling mark a pivotal point after which Apple is perceived as too cocksure for its own good? Could it indicate that Jobs’ pitch-perfect sense of the consumer technology marketplace might be getting a little…tinny? Or, to give Apple a credit, is this simply another example of being so far ahead of the curve that most of us just don’t get it?”

Schlender continues, “Isn’t all this noise and iPad disbelief the way it always is when a new class of computing device is introduced? Fight off your ADD for a moment, and think back to early 2007, when the now ubiquitous iPhone was ‘pre-introduced’ after months of feverish speculation based upon misinformation that Apple did little or nothing to squelch. When Apple unveiled it six months later, there was a lot of initial grumbling about what the shiny little puck couldn’t do… But now, after selling more than 42 million iPhones plus some 33 million iPod Touches, and creating a vast new target for which software developers can make mobile applications that people have downloaded by the billions, those qualms are all but forgotten.”

Full article here.