The early success of the Apple iPad and the fevered media coverage of potential competing devices from Dell, Hewlett-Packard and others might give the impression that the tablet concept is something new in the personal computer industry. But the fact is that PC manufacturers and software developers have been experimenting with the tablet format since the late 1980s. This eWEEK slide show illustrates the evolution of the tablet PC over the past 20 years.
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Apple Newton, Compaq, Early IBM ThinkPads Launched Tablet Revolution
John Pallatto is eWEEK.com's Managing Editor News/West Coast. He directs eWEEK's news coverage in Silicon Valley and throughout the West Coast region. He has more than 35 years of experience as a professional journalist, which began as a report with the Hartford Courant daily newspaper in Connecticut. He was also a member of the founding staff of PC Week in March 1984. Pallatto was PC Week's West Coast bureau chief, a senior editor at Ziff Davis' Internet Computing magazine and the West Coast bureau chief at Internet World magazine.
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