History Of Tablet PCs (PHOTOS): A Pictorial Timeline Of Tablets, From RAND To The iPad

Love 'em or hate 'em, tablet PCs are hot right now. But this latest development in personal computing and entertainment is nothing new, no matter how "magical" or "revolutionary" it may seem.

The latest crop of tablets--including the iPad, the JooJoo, the HP Slate (to name only a few)--springs from over two centuries of research and development, starting with Elisha Gray, whose 1888 "Telautograph" (U.S. patent No. 386,815) is believed to be the forerunner to the modern tablet.

The first tablets, as we would recognize them, didn't come about until the late 1950s and early 1960s. These "tablets" consisted of a large computer terminal attached to a receiver pad, which accepted electrical or magnetic input from a stylus. They were extremely expensive to make and extremely heavy. Over the years, as tablets became functionally more complex, they also became more compact. The rest is history.

Yes, we've come a long way. See just how far by viewing our slideshow of the tablet's evolution since the 1960s.

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RAND Tablet (1964)

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The RAND tablet, also called the Grafacon (for 'Graphic Converter') was one of the earliest tablet computers and sold for $18,000. 'The attached stylus sensed electrical pulses relayed through a fine grid of conductors housed beneath the drawing surface,' explains ComputerHistory.org.

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The RAND tablet, also called the Grafacon (for 'Graphic Converter') was one of the earliest tablet computers and sold for $18,000. 'The attached stylus sensed electrical pulses relayed through a fine grid of conductors housed beneath the drawing surface,' explains ComputerHistory.org.

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Comments

[OswegoKayaker]

12:31 AM on 04/27/2010

The greatest history to be made was stranded Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg running his country by iPad. What a PR coup that picture was.

http://technologizer.com/2010/04/18/running-a-country-on-your-ipad/

[kedikat]

09:10 PM on 04/17/2010

Several of the entries are not tablet computers. They are tablet input devices, attached to large and some huge computers.

This would be like calling a mouse or a keyboard a computer. A tablet computer contains all the computing, input and display components in a compact, tablet style case.

[conradb212]

04:43 PM on 04/16/2010

Excellent tablet history. It's interesting to see how many folks think Microsoft invented the tablet back in 2002 when, in fact, tablets have been around for almost 25 years. I mean, the original IBM ThinkPad of the early 1990s was, well, a pad, a tablet.

The link is for a history on tablets I did in 2001:

http://www.ruggedpcreview.com/pdfs/tablet_past_and_future.pdf

[floodberg]

09:29 PM on 04/16/2010

You should have submitted it to HP; It's pretty good!!

[RedDogBear]

07:48 PM on 04/17/2010

How DO you submit something to HP? I've tried all the email addresses and never received a reply, except for "Mailbox full"

[Christopher Ross]

09:18 AM on 04/16/2010

I was a technology evangelist for Microsoft during the Tablet PC launch years, and don't believe the 'Mira' device was ever launched. Would have been nice, but it was ahead of it's time in terms of consumers realizing the benefit of having a multiple wirelss computing devices in the home. And, I think there was concern that the one to many capabili would be challenging to desktop PC sales.

[AlmostLiberal]

06:07 AM on 04/16/2010

Over two centuries of research and development........starting in 1888?

Someone needs to utilize their tablet PC calculator.

[candyer]

05:57 AM on 04/16/2010

I have always felt that the emergence of ipad is Apple smart performance. She know that high-tech need fashion also! ps: I love the shape of ipad!!

http://www.aneesoft.com/tutorials/ipad/best-20-free-ipad-apps.html

[David Barens]

04:48 AM on 04/16/2010

The iPad is a sweet device, but I am very curious for Google's tablet this year.

[Marc Brooks]

10:26 PM on 04/15/2010

How in the world can you not mention the Dauphin DTR-1 and 5000? These were fully pen-driven machines running Windows 3.x w/ Pen extensions. I deploy hundreds to doctors in 94-95. http://www.computercloset.org/DauphinDTR1.htm http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue160/156_Dauphin_DTR1.php

[TangentJF]

10:10 PM on 04/15/2010

Wow. Typical HuffPost technical bias.

I have used three different convertible tablet form factors that are not on this list. And they happen to be Windows tablet PCs.

[hopefull2008]

12:09 AM on 04/17/2010

Yep .. ongoing issue around here .

[Moxo]

09:58 PM on 04/15/2010

Didn't Moses have a couple of tablets....?

[Morgantheaxe]

05:27 PM on 04/15/2010

I just wish the folks comparing these devices would just go down and handle one of these things for 5 mins. Thats it...just five mins, and it will be a LOT clearer to ya. I keep hearing oh this company made a fail one of these and that company made a fail one of these......they are NOT the same devices at all. The pad works. Try it. Then imagine if ya can pc versions that are competitive to the Ipad....and the Linux/Android versions....the expanded memory they are gonna have. The greater flexibity. God I love the OS apple came up with. Cant wait to see other entrys in to this field

[OswegoKayaker]

12:29 AM on 04/27/2010

And now you can get the wonderful voice memo app for it. I love this app on my ipod touch and wondered why it wasn't included with the iPad.

[RedDogBear]

01:36 PM on 04/15/2010

A lot of the credit for this goes to a very bright and very cool guy named Alan Kay. One of the people who invented Smalltalk at Xerox Parc. Kay imagined this type of computer, he called it the Dynabook, back in 1968 when the rest of the world was still interacting with computers via punch cards and printouts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook

[Krek]

12:58 PM on 04/15/2010

A lot of people are talking about touchscreen being the future of computing but how does touchscreen work for large monitors? All the screens in the article above are relative small - everything except the Google 'glass blotter' could be held in one hand. Could you imagine on say a 27" monitor disposing of the mouse to prod and swipe the screen like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. With a mouse you don't have to move anything above your wrist - with a touch screen on a large monitor sending an e-mail would be a full upper body workout. The mouse suits the lazy lifestyle and for that reason alone I can't see it going anywhere soon.

[RedDogBear]

01:52 PM on 04/15/2010

I agree with you the mouse isn't going away any time soon, if ever. Other types of interfaces will be important though. For email that type huge touch screen is overkill but for things like graphic design or programming it makes a lot of sense.

When I did serious software development I would ideally have an extra monitor because I had so much stuff up at the same time, libraries, email, debuggers, online manuals, etc. Or as another example one of the first really powerfull single user work stations was the Symbolics Lisp machine. It had an extended keyboard that we called the "space cadet keyboard" and a three button mouse. Using it was more like playing the piano than typing. There were all sorts of extra keys to get to various features immediately: abort, help, super, meta, hyper. With an enhanced key stroke or mouse click you could do in one gesture what would take lots of typing or mouse clicks in other environments. That kind of rich environment lends itself to the large touch screen.

[Euges]

03:20 PM on 04/15/2010

HP Touchsmart all in one computers have this and have been around for a few years now. The biggest is still only 23" as of yet, but they might be heading for bigger sizes. They use to be billed as a "Kitchen Entertainment System".

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=desktops&a1=Category&v1=All-in-One+PCs&series_name=600q_series&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/desktops/All-in-One_PCs/600q_series

[Givethemhellharry]

12:18 PM on 04/15/2010

The first Tablet I had used a touchscreen. I never figured out why it went out of fashion.

[Givethemhellharry]

12:12 PM on 04/15/2010

I have been using Tablet PCs with handwriting, keyboard and speech input for close to 10 years, depending on what I am doing on the system. I am writing this on a Motion LS800 that I have had for 5 years. This history is very thin, I had both a Motion 1200 and 1400 before the 800. The IPad is a joke in my estimation, to little, to late and to few features.

[amdezurik]

12:39 PM on 04/15/2010

I have an LS800 too, I love it for travel and picked up an InMotion bluetooth keyboard a while ago and a trackball for when I have a desk and it works like a charm :)