AP reports that Apple CEO Steve Jobs told an audience at the Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Rancho Palos Verdes yesterday that the idea for the iPad actually came before the iPhone.

Jobs told the conference attendees that the idea to replace the keyboard with a touch-screen interface came about in early 2000, although he acknowledged that at the time Apple was working on developing a phone. Jobs said that when he got his hands on a prototype that used the scrolling mechanism he knew he was looking at something special:
“I thought, My God we can build a phone out of this.”

However, the tablet idea was put on the back burner for several years as Apple turned its attention to fully developing the iPhone. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Jobs also took the opportunity to address concerns over AT&T’s network troubles, saying that many places in the U.S. will have much improved reception by the end of the summer. Significantly, though, Jobs didn’t rule out other carriers getting the iPhone in the future. Jobs concluded by heralding the end of the PC era, in typically Steve Jobs fashion. “We like to talk about the post-PC era. I think we’re embarked on that. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it happen next year or five years from now or seven years? Who knows?”


By Maura Sutton, iPadForums.net
Source: AP

Steve Jobs most likely believes that the idea for the iPad came before Motorola envisioned cellular telephone service or AlGore invented the internet.

Worse. The iPad was invented before MacIntosh!

yeah i heard that a while ago

Without the iPhone success, and the app store..... No iPad. I don't care when someone may have thought of it, you have to have the infrastructure.....

Originally Posted by figmo10

Steve Jobs most likely believes that the idea for the iPad came before Motorola envisioned cellular telephone service or AlGore invented the internet.

Yeah we can't forget to mention Al Gore, the hero that he is LOL