Microsoft created a tablet years before Apple, but it never took off - here's why

While Apple is synonymous with the iPad and touch-based devices, it could’ve been a completely different world had Microsoft acted on its own ambitions in the tablet domain.

In November 2000, a full decade before Steve Jobs blew everyone away with the iPad, Bill Gates showcased a prototype tablet device during a keynote at the Comdex computer expo trade show in Las Vegas.

The prototype device paraded by Gates was a fully fleshed out PC which the company aimed to release globally and running on a dedicated Windows version - it even came with a pen, which Steve Jobs would’ve utterly detested.