If Bill Gates could redesign the iPad, he'd add a keyboard, a stylus and voice recognition. Heck, he'd probably even put Windows 7 on there.
Speaking to BNET's Brent Schlender, Gates said "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."
Now Gates is a smart guy, but if you want a netbook, you can buy a netbook. The whole point of the iPad is that it is an entirely new device, and not just an Apple-branded version of the tiny, hard-to-use computers that even Sony executive Mike Abary called "a race to the bottom."
The iPad has attracted a lot of hatred, before anyone has even seen one. The day after the iPad announcement, my dad - not someone usually interested in this stuff - mentioned something about it "not having Flash". He'd seen it on the BBC news. And now that Gates is on record, it seems that he, too, wants the iPad to metamorphose into a normal, albeit small, laptop.
So, did Gates have anything good to say about the iPad? "It’s a nice reader," he told Schlender, "but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"
Like the iPhone before, people are missing the point. If you don't want one, don't buy one. Buy a netbook instead, or a MacBook, or an iPod Touch. Just quit whining, because as soon as the iPad goes on sale, I predict that Apple will sell a gazillion. And it won't be to people who have even heard of multi-tasking. It'll be to people who want something that just works, that gets out of their way and lets them read and write, not update printer drivers and anti-virus software. It'll be to people like my mum and dad, who never liked "real" computers in the first place.
And you know what? Once they actually see and use it, I'll bet the nerds suddenly go quiet and start buying them too. Don't worry -- it'll be our little secret.
Bill Gates Joins the iPad's Army of Critics. Steve Jobs Couldn't Care Less [BNET]
Photo illustration: Charlie Sorrel
Original photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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