Gates: Microsoft still likes tablets; pen-based computing isn't dead
5/05/2010 12:33:00 AM
kenmouse
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Say this for Bill Gates: He stands behind his favorite trends, even when they haven't turned out to be much in the way of trends.Appearing with Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway lieutenant Charlie Munger for a wide-ranging interview on Fox Business Network, the Microsoft chairman made it clear that the company isn't giving up on tablet computing -- despite the news last week that it's dropping its Courier dual-screen tablet project, and the unconfirmed report that HP won't be using Windows 7 for its upcoming slate computer.
“Microsoft has a lot of different tablet projects that we're pursuing," said Gates, according to a transcript provided by the network. "We think that work with the pen that Microsoft pioneered will become a mainstream for students. It can give you a device that you can not only read, but also create documents at the same time."
Notably, pen input was one of the scenarios demonstrated in the leaked videos of Microsoft's Courier project, and the company said in its statement last week that technologies from the Courier device would be "evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings." Pen-based computers were a centerpiece of Microsoft's original Tablet PC initiative, championed by Gates back in the early part of the last decade, but touch screens have become the input mechanism of choice in recent years, as exemplified by the iPad.
On that subject, Fox Business host Liz Claman also posed the obligatory Apple question during the interview, asking her guests for their opinion of the company.
Replied Buffet, according to the transcript: “Steve Jobs has done a terrific job. And there will be companies that excel. And occasionally they will excel because of luck, but usually they excel because of brains.”
Agreed Gates: ‘Yes, I think both in general and in the specific, Apple's done a great job.”
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