Tablets have killed the netbook market and are fast transforming the traditional PC.
Apple's iPad gets most of the credit for that, but the tablet computer was not Steve Jobs' idea. Tablets actually began decades before the iPad was launched in 2010.
SEE ALSO: Microsoft Invented A Tablet A Decade Before Apple And Totally Blew It
First came the Linus Write-Top in 1987.
The is one of the first handwriting-recognition tablets. By using it's stylus, you could write on the green screen.
Pretty revolutionary for 1987.
The GridPad launched two years later.
In 1989, Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm Computing, created the GridPad.
Some call this the first tablet computer. It ran MS-DOS and the military bought a few but consumers mostly ignored it. It was pricey and heavy compared to laptops of the era.
Apple's first "tablet" was the MessagePad in 1993.
Apple's Newton MessagePad from 1993 was an attempt to create a new category of device that didn't replace the PC, a so-called "personal digital assistant" or PDA, for taking your calendar/todo list and a few apps with you.
With a stylus, you could write on it and it would recognize your handwriting (though it wasn't particularly good at that).
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