网路多媒体专题报告TabletPCB90901002陈如芃.DOC

網路多媒體專題報告 Tablet PC 如芃 ? -1991 - GO Corp. debuts a pen-based tablet. ATT acquires GO ?and shuts it down by mid-1994. -1992 - Apple unveils pocket-size Newton. Its iffy handwriting recognition becomes a plot line in Doonesbury. Apple pulls the plug in 1997. -1992 - Gates launches Microsofts Windows for Pen. Product stalls at the gate and is gone by 1994. -April 1996 - Palm ships its new handheld computer, the Palm Pilot. Its the first pen-based computer to succeed. -November 1997 - Oracle veteran Dick Brass joins Microsoft to work on tablet technology. -Spring 1999 - Brass gets the OK to pursue the tablet. He hires PC pioneers Butler Lampson and Chuck Thacker, as well as Bert Keely, an engineer who led a tablet project at Silicon Graphics. He persuades Alex Loeb, who was in the Office group, to run the tablet group. -November 2000 - Gates features the tablet in his speech at the Comdex technology trade show. -February-March 2001 - Microsoft sends 40 tablets to Minneapolis for a six-week field trial at three companies. Users pan a key feature that tries to predict if theyre writing or navigating with the pen. -May 2001 - After heated debates, Loeb pulls the technology from the tablet. Some angry developers threaten to quit the tablet team. Even Gates is disappointed. -August 2001 - Loeb worries that Gatess support for a 2002 launch is wavering. At a meeting, Gates pushes for handwriting features in Microsoft Office at the launch. That done, he green-lights the project for 2002 launch. -November 2001 - First prototype tablets emerge. Acer builds a laptop with a swivel screen that flips over into a writing pad. Gates features them in his Comdex speech. -May 2002 - Gates takes 150 tablets to Microsofts annual CEO Summit. Loeb frets that the devices arent ready, but they work. -August 2002 - Tablet software is released to computer makers. The team parties, rocking to Keelys band. -November 2002 - Tablet launches, with seven PC makers unveiling new