Early pen computer systems caused a lot of excitement in the late 1980s, and there was a time when it was thought keyboards could replace traditional computers. After all, everyone knows how to use a stylus, and a stylus is less intimidating than a keyboard. Planned in the 1980s, his
pen computer was built around handwriting recognition. In the early 1980s, handwriting recognition was seen as an important technology of the future. Nobel laureate Dr. Charles Elbaum founded his Nestor and developed the handwriting recognition NestorWriter. Communication Intelligence Corporation created a handwriting detection system, but there were many others.
In 1991, the pen computing hype reached its peak. The pen was seen as a challenge to mouse and pen computers as desktop replacements. Seeing the Slates as a potential serious competitor for Windows computers, Microsoft announced Pen Extensions for Windows 3.1, dubbed Windows for Pen Computing. Microsoft made bold predictions about the pen system's benefits and success, but it will be another decade before they come to fruition. 1992 products have arrived. GO Corporation released his PenPoint. Lexicus has released the Longhand handwriting recognition system. Microsoft has released Windows for Pen Computing. Between 1992 and 1994, many companies introduced hardware to run Windows for Pen Computing or PenPoint. Among them were EO, NCR, Samsung, Dauphin, Fujitsu, TelePad, Compaq, Toshiba and IBM. Few people remember that the original IBM ThinkPad was, as the name suggests, a slate computer. The press for the
computer was enthusiastic at first, but very critical when the pen computer failed to sell. When comparing pen computers to desktop PCs running Windows software, most people find pen tablets difficult to use. They also criticized the poor handwriting recognition. After that, the pen computer company went bankrupt. Momenta he closed in 1992. They used $40 million in venture capital. Samsung and NCR did not launch new products. His GRiD, a pen pioneer, was acquired by his AST because of its production capabilities. AST has discontinued all pen projects. Founded by a Korean businessman named Alan Yong, Dauphin went bankrupt and owed IBM more than $40 million of his debt. GO was acquired by AT&T, which closed his company in August 1994 (after the memorable "Fax on the Beach" TV commercial). GO lost nearly $70 million in venture capital. Compaq, IBM, NEC, and Toshiba all stopped producing pen products for the consumer market in 1994 and 1995.
By 1995, pen computing was dead in the consumer market. Disappeared. It remained alive in vertical and industrial markets. Companies such as Fujitsu Personal Systems, Husky, Telkson, Microslate, Intermec, Symbol Technologies, Explore, and Walkabout have produced and sold many pen tablets and pen boards.
But that wasn't the end of pen computing. Bill Gates has always believed in this technology, and slate computers can be seen over the years in many of Microsoft's various "Future of Computing" presentations. After Microsoft reintroduced his pen his computer as a "tablet PC" in 2002, slates and convertibleshis notebooks were revived, and new companies like Motion Computing launched slates for vertical and industrial markets. Computing joined his core of specialists. He has two main reasons why the
Microsoft-designed tablet PC met with some success and previous attempts failed. First, the technology required for writing tablets did not exist in the early 1990s. Second, the pen seer's idea of replacing keyboard input with handwriting (and voice) recognition turned out to be much more difficult than expected. In fact there were some very good recognizers still in use
